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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

In this chapter, research focuses on research background, research problems,

research objectives, research significance, scope, and research limitations and

definitions of key terms.

A. Background of the Problem

Vocabulary is one of the factors that support students to master

language skills, namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. In

listening, students may not understand the conversation well. In

speaking they cannot communicate well without vocabulary; in

reading students may not understand the text; and in writing, students

may not write our ideas. The problem is a lack of vocabulary. We can

conclude that vocabulary is very important in a language because

vocabulary is one component of language in English. Supported by

Wallace (1988: 9), "vocabulary is a vital aspect of language".

Furthermore, Rivers (1970: 462) said that "it is not possible to learn

languages without vocabulary".

Vocabulary is a basic element of language that makes language

meaningful. This means that the more vocabulary people learn, the

easier they are to express their ideas. Therefore, vocabulary is a must

in learning a language. Although, we know that vocabulary is an

important component of language that must be mastered by students

but there are still many students who still lack vocabulary.
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Vocabulary, as one of the language components, it is an

important component for students to be learned since it builds up

communication. People cannot send their messages or express ideas to

others, they can grasp what other people say if they don't know the

vocabulary. There are still many students who could not answer the

teachers' question. They keep asking questions to translate the

question into their mother tongue (Indonesian). And when reading

some textbooks the students do not know the content of the text or not

the reading comprehension because they don't know the meaning of

the text. The student really depended on the dictionary to make it in

English words and the last, their listening and speaking abilities.

When the teacher asked them some questions in English, some of the

students could understand the meaning of the teacher, but they could

not answer it by using English.

According to Allan and Vallate (1997) state that teaching

vocabulary can be meaningful if the teacher conducts the teaching

process by combining the available techniques of teaching. There are

several techniques for teaching 'Vocabulary'. When the teacher wants

to present new vocabulary or lexical items to students, means the

teacher wants students to remember new vocabulary. Then, the

teacher tells students to study, practice, and revise, so that to prevent

students from forgetting it.

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Concerning with the visual techniques, Gairns and

Redman(1980) as cited by Marla, et al (1999:12) says that "there are

there form visual techniques; “relia, pictures, and mime or gestures.”

Relia means using a variety of real-object brought by the students in

the classroom It can be also applied to remember written material.

Students can act out what they read, or associate physical sensation

with specific words found in reading passages.

This technique pertains to the use of the illustrative situation,

synonyms, opposites, scale, definition, and categories. More

specifically, Marla, et al (1990:3) divide verbal techniques into four

parts, among those are:

a) Definition and illustration sentences; This technique the

English teachers are expected to introduce a word in English through

the use of another word in the same language. b) Synonyms and

antonyms; Synonyms and antonyms are especially important in

building new vocabulary because learners are able to know the

vocabulary. Synonyms are words that have the same meaning as the

unknown in a given sentence. There may be signals that identify the

presence of synonym for the readers. They could be or, commas,

dashes, and colons. Meanwhile, antonyms are words that have the

opposite meaning of the unknown word in a given sentence. Signals

which identify the presence of the antonyms for readers are instead,

although, but, yet, and however. c) Scale; This technique is the

presentation of related words in scales that include the combination of

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both verbal and visual techniques, for example, in the term 32°

Celsius, the degree sign is visual. d) Explanation; This technique

explains the meaning and the use of a foreign word in the foreign

language itself.

Taking into account the points of the technique presented

earlier, it seems that there are several similarities of the program for

teaching vocabulary development skills to be recognized by Brown

(1994:367). He offers some techniques for teaching vocabulary skills,

among others are: Determine the goal of teaching, such as:

o To improve the reading vocabulary skills of ESL

students.

o To teach ESL students word-building skills.

o To teach ESL students to guess word meanings from

context clues.

 Get a student to make word building; that is derived from suffixes,

prefixes, and roots.

 Definition clues, which comprises the parentheses and footnotes,

and synonyms and antonyms.

 Inference clues; These clues have three types, such as for

example, summary, and experience.

Based on the quotation above, it can be said that the English

teachers, before applying those techniques, should know the level of

students' competency and the goal of teaching in advance, particularly

on teaching vocabulary. Also, they should be able to lead the students

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to learn a new word or some words clearly. In relation to the

employment of verbal techniques, of course, the English teachers have

to regard the length of time and the English textbooks used.

In addition to the previous two techniques, the use of dictionary

is another technique in finding out the meaning of unfamiliar words

and expression. In this respect, the Students can make use a variety of

dictionaries, such as bilingual, monolingual, pictorial, and thesaurus.

It can be concluded that the teacher must choose the right technique

for students who do not understand the vocabulary well.

This is the reason that the writer applies the application to create

new styles of teaching rather than old fashioned direct instruction.

Many students are lazy to learn vocabulary words because they are

bored with the method given by the teacher. Students only get the

vocabulary then the teacher tells the students to memorize it. Or just

make sentences from the vocabulary that only they can. The writer

assumes that the student can encourage, and they can enjoy with

Duolingo application.

Duolingo application is a Free Language Learning Application

can be downloaded on the Phone or PC, so the user can practice

anytime. Especially for English young learners can practice anytime

and anywhere. Duolingo application has an excellent learning strategy

because it has a very motivating learning system. It uses a strategy of

game mechanics to create the incentive to keep students learning. It is

built very similarly to a computer game where the participants have to

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pass certain levels. A student passes the three level of the language.

The following lessons are unlocked after a learner has mastered the

previous material. Users can complete a variety of exercise types

including multiple choices, writing and also speaking through a

microphone. Duolingo uses mainly drills and repetitive exercises in

the lessons.

According to Dudeney and Hockly (2007, p. 92) stated that

internet access is becoming increasingly available to learners, younger

learners are growing in the technology era, and English as an

international language is being used in a technological context.

Therefore, it is significant to employ technology as the media to

support the teaching and learning materials without the limitation of

time. One of the applications of technologies that popular in learning

English is Duolingo application. As described in Wikipedia web site “

Duolingo uses a heavily data-driven approach to education. At each

step along the way, the system measures which questions the users

struggle with and what sorts of mistakes they make. It then aggregates

those data and learns from the patterns it recognizes”. To ease the

process of learning the English language, and supported by a very

advanced technology currently, the young learners who want to learn

English with practical and fun applications might use Duolingo

application to practice English. Practices are important to enable

students to master English skills, and exercise is very important since

it is made as a tool for measuring and evaluating student’s ability in

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achieving the material which is given. When doing exercises someone

should examine whether the exercises are relevant or not. The

researcher focuses on the exercises of vocabulary presented in

Duolingo free language learning application.

Duolingo deliberately brought the concept of play and learn in

order to feel more comfortable and easy to use by all walks of life. We

certainly have felt tired doing daily routines and for a moment we can

relax while learning a foreign language.

The research aims to offer convenience to learn English with the

use of multimedia learning applications using Duolingo, which can be

used to practice independently and can be used in place of

study/course/ school/ home or everywhere.

In this study, the researcher attempt to prove whether the

Duolingo application is effective in improving vocabulary ability at

the class of the seventh grade of junior high school.

The use of technology is an essential part to support the process

of teaching and learning in order to make it more interesting. So far,

video, cassette, and power point presentation are used in teaching-

learning processes. In addition, it will be one of the teachings and

learning instructional that is used either in the class or outside the

class. According to National Research Council (1995, p. 51),

technology offers new ways of teaching and learning and provides

new ways for all students in education to be openly accountable to

parents, communities, and students. Therefore the use of technology

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can facilitate the achievement of students because it provides an

attractive medium for learning English in order to be more fun and

effective. This was also conveyed by Dudeney and Hockly (2007, p.

92) stated that internet access is becoming increasingly available to

learners, younger learners are growing in the technology era, and

English as an international language is being used in a technological

context. Therefore, it is very important to use technology as a medium

to support learning and teaching materials without time constraints.

One of the popular technology applications in learning English

is Duolingo. As explained in the Wikipedia website "Duolingo uses 5

approaches that are strongly driven by data for education. At each step

along the way, the system measures which questions the users struggle

with and what sorts of mistakes they make. It then aggregates those

data and learns from the patterns it recognizes”. To ease the process of

learning the English language, and supported by a very advanced

technology currently, the young learners who want to learn English

with practical and fun applications might use Duolingo to practice

English.

The reason researcher chose Duolingo for teaching vocabulary,

because the method used in learning on Duolingo application is

different from general classroom teaching. Where students only

memorize and write vocabulary, it makes students more bored in

learning vocabulary. Though the vocabulary is the beginning of

mastery of English. In vocabulary learning using the Duolingo

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application, researcher use media such as LCD, sound, and laptop so

that learning run effectively in the class.

Practices are important to enable students to master English

skills, and exercise is very important since it is made as a tool for

measuring and evaluating student’s ability in achieving the material

which is given. When doing exercises someone should examine

whether the exercises are relevant or not. The researcher focuses on

the exercises of vocabulary presented in Duolingo Free Language

Learning Application.

B. Research Problem

Based on the background of this study, the writer has determined the

problem of the study that becomes the concern of the discussion. The

problem was elaborated into a research question that read:

1. Is there any significant difference between students’ vocabulary

mastery before and after being taught by Duolingo application?

C. Objectives of the Research

From the statement of the problem stated above the goal of this

research was:

1. To find out whether there is any significant difference between

students’ vocabulary mastery before and after being taught by

Duolingo application.
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D. Significance of the Research

The significances of this research were expected to provide

some advantages for English teaching and learning process. The

significances of this research are:

1. For the students as the subjects of the research, it was expected

that the students will take the advantages of the research. They

can learn how to improve their skills of vocabulary trough

application.

2. For the teachers in the school, it was expected that the teachers

can improve their student’s vocabulary interestingly and

effectively so that the students will enjoy the study.

E. Scope and Limitation of the Research

The use of learning media greatly influences the results of

learning objectives. Because teachers do not need to feel difficulty

understanding and especially training vocabulary that often becomes

the problem is for teachers, lacking special time in practicing their

vocabulary skills. Many learning media around us can be used to

support learning activities, with advances in information and

technology today, for example with the Duolingo smartphone

application. This application intentionally carries the concept of

"playing while learning" to make it more fun and easy to use for all

ages. This application can be made alone to support learning activities

according to daily topics, and can make it easier for us, especially
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education practitioners, to practice English skills in vocabulary tests.

The researcher chose the first grade of junior high school because in

the first grade of junior high school they need to learn more about

vocabulary, and the reason researcher choose first grade than other

grade because mastery of vocabulary is emphasized on the first grade.

And the vocabulary material in the Duolingo application matches the

ability of first-grade students. In the first grade, they tend to feel bored

in learning vocabulary, then the researcher will provide a fun

vocabulary learning through Duolingo application. Researcher chose

Duolingo technique because wanted to find out whether using the

Duolingo application could increase students' vocabulary mastery. In

learning vocabulary using Duolingo application students will not feel

bored, because in Duolingo application provides several features like

pictures, audio section, various kinds of chapters, coin learning

achievement, and also there are key answers and explanations the

material, and make students more creative, etc. The researcher on the

use of Duolingo, because the researcher wants to know how the result

of using Duolingo in teaching English especially vocabulary material.

In the chapter of Duolingo, there are various types of vocabulary

such as noun, verb, adjective, etc. And each chapter finds different

types of vocabulary, such as basic 1, basic 2, conjunctions, verbs,

adjectives, family, ownership words, verb gerund, etc, and we must

complete the previous chapter if we want to continue to the next

chapter. In Duolingo there is an aspect of vocabulary namely spelling,

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pronunciation, and meaning. And in teaching vocabulary through

Duolingo, Researcher more focused on pronunciation and meaning

aspects, so that the students easier in mastering vocabulary. Duolingo

also provides listening skills in each word, where students can better

understand the mastery of pronunciation. and here students can master

the vocabulary better. A student passes the three level of the language.

The following lessons are unlocked after a learner has mastered the

previous material. Users can complete a variety of exercise types

including multiple choices, writing and also speaking through a

microphone.

Before learning about the vocabulary more broadly, you must

look for basic words that must be learned, so that it is easier to expand

the mastery of English vocabulary. The eight parts of speech are

nouns, pronouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, conjunctions,

prepositions, and interjections.

A noun is generally defined as a person, place, or thing; however,

ideas are also nouns. For example, love is not a tangible thing that can

be seen or held, but clearly, it exists, so it is also a noun.

A verb is a word that describes the action or a state of being. The

second part of this definition is important, as many believe that verbs

are always action words that can be visualized. This is true of action

verbs: run, walk, play, jump, sing, scream, etc.

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A pronoun; is a word that is used to replace a noun For example,

instead of saying “Sam likes pizza” we can use “He” as a substitute

for Sam. Writers need to be careful with pronoun use, as pronouns

should only be used after a noun has been used first, and it must be

clear which noun the pronoun is replacing.

An adjective; modifies (limits or describes) a noun or a

pronoun. Essentially, it provides more information about a person,

place, or thing.

Adverb; similar to adjectives, an adverb modifies a verb, an adjective,

or another adverb. In the sentence Susan walked slowly towards the

door, the word slowly serves as an adverb since it describes how she

walked.

A preposition; shows the relationship between a noun or pronoun and

some other word in the sentence. This relationship is spatial, temporal,

or directional. For instance, in the sentence Mark walked towards the

house, the word towards is a preposition since it shows direction.

When linked with nouns or pronouns, prepositions create word groups

referred to as prepositional phrases. (In the previous example, towards

the house is a prepositional phrase).

A conjunction; joins two words, ideas, phrases or clauses together in a

sentence and shows how they are connected. Examples: and, or, but,

because, so, yet, unless, since, if.

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An interjection is a word or phrase that expresses a strong feeling or

emotion. An interjection is one of the eight major parts of speech,

along with verbs, nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, prepositions

and conjunctions. Interjections simply convey the way the author (or

speaker) is feeling. Interjections are rarely used in academic or formal

writing; they're more common in fiction or artistic writing. They're

usually, but not always, offset by an exclamation point (which is also

used to show emotion). It is a short exclamation. Examples: Ouch!

Wow! Great! Help! Oh! Hey! Hi!.

The concept of a word can be defined in various ways, but three

significant aspects teachers need to be aware of and focus on are form,

meaning, and use. According to Nation (2001), the form of a word

involves its pronunciation (spoken form), spelling (written form), and

any word parts that make up this particular item (such as a prefix,

root, meaning, and suffix). Vocabulary aspect namely spelling,

pronunciation, and meaning.

Spelling is the ability to spell words in the correct way. It is also

an attempt to spell a word in the correct way.

Pronunciation is the way in which a word or a language is spoken.

This may refer to generally agreed-upon sequences of sounds used in

speaking a given word or language in a specific dialect ("correct

pronunciation"), or simply the way a particular individual speaks a

word or language.
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Meaning is the information or concepts that a sender intends to

convey, or does convey, in communication with a receiver.

F. Definition of Key terms

In order to make the readers get easier in understanding this

study, here the researcher will give the definition of some key terms

that important to be understood as the following:

a. Duolingo

Duolingo is a free language-learning application. To ease the

process of learning English language, and supported by a very

advanced technology currently, the young learners who want to learn

the English with practical and fun applications might use Duolingo to

practice English. This app is not only available in the web version but

it is also available in Android, iOS and Windows Phone versions. In

November 2016, the app provides 66 different language courses

available in 23 languages; there are 22 more courses that are still

being developed. English courses for Indonesian users are available

and used by 1.39 million users. On the contrary, the Indonesian course

for English speakers is still in the development stage. Interactive

exercises provide immediate feedback to help the student improve

English skills on the spot. Continue tobe motivated with rewards.

Students can earn virtual coins, open new levels, and see the

value of fluency in increasing as students' ability to master new words,

phrases, and grammar. Duolingo provides both written and sound

learning, there is also speaking practice for more experienced users.

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Duolingo has a tree of capabilities whereby the user can complete a

chapter later toward another branch of the tree. Users are hitting

"experience points" (XP) after they complete a chapter, enough points

can raise the user level. The completed chapter will be golden,

eventually, if the users rarely practice, the gold color will disappear

and the user must complete the chapter. If the user has completed all

the chapters in one course they can repeat the exercise

b. Vocabulary

A vocabulary is a set of familiar words within a person's

language. A vocabulary, usually developed with age, serves as a

useful and fundamental tool for communication and acquiring

knowledge. Acquiring an extensive vocabulary is one of the largest

challenges in learning a second language.

"Learning vocabulary is one of the most important elements

without which neither comprehension nor production of language is

possible. In other words, vocabulary cannot be separated from other

language skills.” Laufer (1997, p. 140) in Indriati (2014). In this

research, vocabulary is learning material that has to be learned by the

students of junior high school in the first grade.

c. Technology

“Technology in teaching and learning as an enabler and suggests

that technology can work to help organize and provide structure for

material to students; help students, teachers, and parents interact,

anytime and anywhere” Bajcsy ( 2002, p. 81)

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In this research, technology means an application that can be

used as English learning medium. It can be installed in PC, laptop, and

smartphone. It is free language-learning application that called

Duolingo Application. With technology, it can make it easier for

teachers to deliver material to students. For example, such as

vocabulary teaching using the Duolingo application. In teaching

vocabulary using the Duolingo application the teacher uses LCD,

sound, and laptop media to deliver material, so that learning activities

run effectively. Therefore, technology is very important in teaching

and learning activities in the classroom, such as teaching vocabulary

using the Duolingo application.