CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, the researcher will present about background of the study,

formulation of the problem, purpose of the study, the significance of the study,

scope and limitation of the study, definition of key term, hypothesis and

organization of the study.

A. Background of the Study

Language is one of the important tools to communicate with others. People

can communicate each other and express their ideas and emotions. In Linguistic

study, language is defined as the sequence of speech sounds produced by human

speech organs that has meanings (Setiyadi, 1991:2). Language is a signaling

system which operates with symbolic vocal sound, and which is used by group of

people for the purpose of communication (Susanto, 2007:2). Meanwhile,

Finocchiaro states (in Susanto, 2007:2) that language is a system of arbitrary

vocal symbol which permits all people in a given culture, or other people who

have learned the system of that to communicate or to interact. Sapir also states (in

Susanto, 2007:2) that language is as purely by means of system of voluntarily

produced symbols. Richards and Rodgers state (in Setiyadi, 2006:81) that

language is seen as groups of sound arbitrarily associated with specific meanings

and organized into sentences or strings of meaningful units by grammar rules.

Language is a substitute for experience.

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Nowadays, we come to globalization in which English is useful to transfer

science and technology in the world. English language is the most important

language in the world because it links the whole world together. In fact, text book

and other publication on science and technology are mostly written in English.

. In Indonesia, English has been taught from junior high school until

university and it has been studied from elementary school and kindergarten right

now. Teaching English in Indonesia becomes more important. In every school in

Indonesia, English as a foreign language is considered difficult by many students.

It really needs creative efforts from the English teachers to conduct the process of

teaching learning become fun learning. To be more interesting, the teachers have

to create many ways to explain the English material so that it can be understood

by the students.

In learning English, students should master the language skills and

components. The language skills are listening, speaking, reading, and writing.

And the language components are vocabulary, grammar, pronunciation, etc. The

language skills should be taught in interesting way and the language components

such as vocabulary should be mastered, so the students can use English language.

This study is focused on vocabulary because it is very significant element

in mastering the four skills of English. Vocabulary is one of the most important

aspects of foreign language. It means that vocabulary is very important for

learning foreign language. By mastering vocabulary, it’s expected that we master

the four language skills.

Mastering a large number of vocabularies is very important for the

students who are studying English because by mastering English, it will be very

easy to understand the language. Without mastering vocabulary they will get

trouble in developing the four skills.

There are many factors that influence the success of teaching vocabulary.

Some of them are material to teach the students and the method that are used by

the teacher. The ability of teacher to decide what material and what method will

be used is important. The teacher should select suitable material and using various

methods.

Method is the plan of language teaching which is consistent with the

theories. Talking about method in teaching learning process, there are many

methods that can be used in the process of teaching. In this case, most of the

English teachers in MTs Assyafi’iyah Gondang Tulungagung introduce English

vocabulary by using translation and ask the students to memorize it. In fact,

translation should be avoided because it has several disadvantages such as the

students will get verbalism, and not all the words can be translated. So, many

students feel bored, and uninterested in learning vocabulary, and the effect is the

students just have finished the vocabulary.

Helping the students to learn English in interesting method is an important

aspect. In general, the big problems that the students face in English are the lack

of vocabulary, and pronouncing correctly even to arrange the word into good

sentence. So, it is the teacher’s duty to help them. We know that the teachers
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should have the unique or more interesting technique and method that make the

students enthusiasm and enjoy in learning English.

Silent way is the name of method of language teaching devised by

Gattecno. In this method, the role of language teachers is relatively less silent so

that language learners are encouraged to be more active in producing as much

language as possible (Setiyadi, 2006:76). A language teacher should encourage

language learners to take a role in learning activities. The time of learning

teaching interaction should be given to language learners, not to the teacher,

because too much repetition does not help the students. If the students are familiar

with their teachers’ technique, they know that the teacher will repeat the subject-

matter once again. Thus, they do not pay enough attention to their teachers’ talk.

On the other hand, if the students know that their teacher will not repeat anymore,

they will listen to him/her carefully. Besides that, this method can make the

students independent, autonomous, and responsible in language. In teaching

vocabulary, the teacher provided single word stimuli once or twice, and then the

students refined their understanding and pronunciation among themselves with

minimal corrective feedback from the teacher (Brown, 2004:29). In other words,

in this method the teacher should not always be silent. However, the teacher

should be active, not to dominate the class, but to give any instructions so that the

students could respond those instructions.

Accordingly, the researcher would like to make a research about the

effectiveness of Using Silent Way Method on Vocabulary Achievement of The

Seventh Grade Students of MTs Assyafi’iyah Gondang.

B. Formulation of the Problem

Based on the background of the study, the problem of this study is

formulated as follows:

1. How is students’ vocabulary achievement before being taught using silent

way method?

2. How is the students’ vocabulary achievement after being taught using

silent way method?

3. Is there any significant difference in students’ vocabulary achievement

before and after being taught using silent way method?

C. Purposes of the Study

Based on the research problem, the study is intended to:

1. Know the students’ vocabulary achievement before being taught using

Silent way method.

2. Know the students’ vocabulary achievement after being taught using Silent

way method.

3. Know the significant difference in students’ vocabulary achievement before

and after being taught using Silent way method.

D. The Significance of the Study

The researcher hopes that result of the study will give contribution to:

a) The Students

1. It can improve the mastery of vocabulary.

2. The student will be able to mastering the vocabulary better by using

silent way method.

3. Silent way method can give motivation to students in mastering

vocabulary.

b) The Teachers

1. Teachers know the level of students’ vocabulary mastery.

2. The result can become an input to determine the step and strategy for

teaching learning vocabulary. So, the teachers can reach the maximum

teaching as a feed-back to improve the quality of English teaching

learning vocabulary, and it can be as important information in using

silent way method to improve the quality of teaching vocabulary.

c) School

The finding is hopefully useful for the school board as informative data

in using silent way teaching method available in schools in the teaching

and learning process of vocabulary.

d) The other researcher

Hopefully, this study will contribute as a good reference for other

research, especially on the same topic as this writer does.

E. Scope and Limitation of the Study

In this research, the writer limits the study on the students’ achievement in

mastering vocabulary especially Noun and Verb in the Recount Text taught using

Silent Way Method and the significant difference in students’ vocabulary

achievement before and after being taught using Silent way method to seventh

grade students of MTs Assyafi’iyah Gondang Tulungagung.

F. The Definition of Key Terms

In this part, there is some explanation from the title mentioned in the

previous items. The title is “The effectiveness of Using Silent Way Method on

Vocabulary Achievement of The Seventh Grade Students of MTs Assyafi’iyah

Gondang Tulungagung”.

The definitions of key terms are as follows:

1. Effectiveness.

In Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary (2003:138), effectiveness is producing

the result that is wanted or intended. The meaning of effectiveness in this study

is there is any significant difference in the students’ vocabulary achievement

before and after being taught using Silent way method.

2. Vocabulary.

Vocabulary is a list of word and often phrases, abbreviation, inflection form,

usually arranged in alphabetical order and defined or otherwise identified, as in

dictionary or glossary.

3. Vocabulary Achievement.
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Vocabulary achievement is the students’ ability mastering vocabulary which is

indicated by score they gain in the test.

4. Silent Way Method.

Silent way is the name of method of language teaching devised by Gattecno.

In this Method, language teacher should encourage language learners to take a

role in learning activities. The time of learning teaching interaction should be

given to language learners, not to the teacher.

G. Hypothesis

The Hypothesis for this study are:

1. Ho: There is no significant difference between the students’ vocabulary

achievement before and after they are taught using silent way method

toward the student’s vocabulary achievement of seventh class at MTs

Assyafi’iyah Gondang.

2. Ha: There is a significant difference between the students’ vocabulary

achievement before and after they are taught using silent way method

toward the student’s vocabulary achievement of seventh class at MTs

Assyafi’iyah Gondang.

H. Organization of the Study

The organization of the research paper is given in order to make the

readers understand the content of the paper.

Chapter I: (Introduction), it includes background of the study, formulation of the

problem, purpose of the study, the significance of the study, scope and

limitation of the study, definition of key term, hypothesis and

organization of the study.

Chapter II: (Review of Literature), it discusses about the definition of vocabulary

mastery, kinds of vocabulary, teaching vocabulary, silent way method,

the procedure of applying the silent way method, and testing

vocabulary.

Chapter III: (Research Methodology), it presents the research design, population

sample and sampling, variable, data and data sources, data collecting

method and the instrument, and technique of data analysis.

Chapter IV: (Finding and Discussion), it consists of data description, Hypothesis

testing, and discussion.

Chapter V: (Conclusion and Suggestion), it presents the conclusion of this study

and suggestion.