IMPROVING VOCABULARY
ABILITY AND FLUENCY BY USING REPORTING-BACK STRATEGY
Fitri
yunita,Faculty of English Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Nusantara
PGRI of Kediri, Indonesia
Abstract
Learning
vocabulary is one of the first steps in learning a second language, but a
learner never finishes vocabulary acqusition. Wheter in one’s native language
or a second language, the acqusition of new vocabulary is an ongoing process. As
the focus of Indonesia educational research has shifted to studying the
improvement of students’ vocabulary and fluency,the reporting back is becoming
more effective strategy to educators and students. Reporting back is the usual term for the process of feeding
back material from group deliberations into a plenary session (the phrase is
"reporting out" in the States). It is important because, except in
some specialised circumstances, it is necessary in order to gave value to the group discussions.
Members often put a lot of themselves into small group activities, and if they
did not feel that sufficient attention is paid to their efforts, they may well
be turned off the whole activity, and even the course. This paper analysed how
to build vocabulary by using reporting-back strategy and how to motivate the
students to apply it in their English. The research was guided by a conceptual
framework leading to the using reporting back strategy through peer work to
improve their motivation to speak English during the process of classroom
communication interaction. The research type was an action research. The
subject of this research was students of the first grade of Senior High
School.
Keywords : vocabulary
ability, fluency, reporting
strategy, group
Introduction
This main aim of this paper is to
analyze what is reporting strategy and
how to improving vocabulary and fluency by using reporting back strategy. By
doing reporting back strategy will improve the vocabulary ability and the
fluency of the students, as vocabulary is an important elements that should
students mastery in learning English as a second language in the world. This
paper will be explain about whether
there is significance or not and show the effectiveness of reporting back
strategy.
As a consequence English teachers are demanded to be responsible for the
failure in making the students capable of using English for communication both
productively and receptively. To alleviate this ordeal, educators,
practitioners, and policy makers quite often pay very much attention to
research dealing with the curriculum, methodology and teachers excluding such
significant variables as the learner perspective.
They have rarely taken the learner perspective into consideration as a very
important contribution to the learning process. Does the failure have any
relations to these factors? Some English textbooks written for young learners
seem to neglect these factors. As a matter of fact, many research findings have
shown the powerful role of the students in improving their learning outcome.
Teaching vocabulary in Indonesia is considered to be the most difficult,
pronunciation, structure, discourse, and the social context of culture and
situation. In short, it needs the mastery of the linguistic and the cultural
competence. Besides, as vocabulary is difficult, more effort is required on the
part of the students and teachers. It is not enough for the students to listen
or to speech only.
The teachers need to give the students’ activities to practice the new
speech among the four basic skills of language. Bourdons in Nunan (1993) stated
that spoken language needs the mastery of vocabulary habit. This means that
practice vocabulary needs much time to fulfil the requirements of the mastery
of spoken English, either from school or the environment. To mastery English there are four aspects of language that we must give more attention. One of them is vocabulary ability. Paultson and Brunder (1975) stated
that the objective of the language teaching is the production of the speaker’s
competence to communicate in
the target language. Rivers (1968) stated that the teacher should give the
students opportunities to practice vocabulary. She further stated that if the
students are able to practice the new speech habit throughout as the children
do in his native language, the problem of vocabulary fluency of foreign
language would be lessened.
Teaching
vocabulary as a second language in Indonesia is one of the main focuses in the English teaching. Therefore
the English teachers should find out the effort on searching and creating a new
model in presenting materials, in order to increase vocabulary ability.
Based on the
background above, the researcher formulates the following research questions:
(1) Do the students have high motivation in vocabulary English using reporting-back
strategy?; (2) Does the use of reporting-back through peer work significantly improve their ability to speak English?
Related to
the problem statement above, the objective of this research is then specified:
(1) to know about the effectiveness of using reporting-back in improving their motivation to speak English through peer work; (2) to
know about the effectiveness of using reporting-back through peer work in improving their fluency to speak English.
Understanding
Vocabulary
Vocabulary is commonly defined as
“all the words known and used by a particular person”( Cambridge Advanced
Learners Dictionary). Knowing a word, however, is not as simple as simply being
able to recognize or use it. Words that are generally understood when heard, read,
or seen constitute a person’s receptive vocabulary. In this case, the students
receptive vocabulary is likely tens, if not hundreds of words but his or her active vocabulary is zero.
When the students learn to speak,the active vocabulary begins increase. It is
possible for the productive vocabulary to be larger than receptive vocabulary,
for example in a second-language learners who has learned words through study
rather than exposure, and can produce them,but has difficulty recognizing them
in conversation as students though become more reliant on their ability to
self-express. In the first grade,students who can read learns about twice as
many words as one who cannot. Generally,this gap is not narrow later. When an
English speaking students will have learned about 1500 words. It means that
extensive vocabulary aids expression and communication (Sebastian Wren).
The knowledge of the words deriving
from the 3000 most frequent English words provides a comprehension of 95% of word use,and knowledge of 5000 word familiesis necessary for 99,9% word
coverage (Adolphs and Schmitt,2003). One of useful method of building
vocabulary in a keyword method of building vocabulary in a second language is
the key word method. If times is available or one wants to amphasize a few key
words, one can create mnemonic devices or wordassociations.although these
strategy tend totake longer to implement and may take longer in
recollection,they create new or unusual connections that increase retention.
The keyword method requires deeper cognitive processing, thus
increasing the likelihood of retention (Saggara & Alba,2006). Paivio’s
(1986), dual coding theory because it uses both verbal and image memory
systems. However, this method is best for words that represent concrete and
image able things. Abstract concepts or words that do not bring a distinct image
to mind are difficult to associate. In addition,studies have shown that
associate vocabulary learning is more successful with younger students. (Sagara
& Alba,2006) older students tend to rely less on creating word
associations to remember vocabulary. Vocabulary size has been directly linked
to reading comprehension.
Types of vocabulary
Reading vocabulary
A literate person's reading vocabulary is all the words he or she can
recognize when reading. This is generally the largest type of vocabulary simply
because a reader tends to be exposed to more words by reading than by
listening. In many cases, notably Chinese
characters, as in Chinese and Japanese
kanji, where the pronunciation is not indicated by the written word, some
words may be part of the oral vocabulary but not the written. For example, a
Chinese speaker may not recognize that 麒麟 (giraffe) is pronounced qi lin, a Japanese speaker may not
recognize that 麒麟 (giraffe) is pronounced kirin.
Listening vocabulary
A person's listening vocabulary is all the words he or she can
recognize when listening to speech. This vocabulary is aided in size by context
and tone of voice.
Speaking vocabulary
A person's speaking vocabulary is all the words he or she uses in speech. It is
likely to be a subset of the listening vocabulary. Due to the spontaneous
nature of speech, words are often misused. This misuse – though slight and
unintentional – may be compensated by facial expressions, tone of voice,
or hand gestures.
Writing vocabulary
Words used in various forms of writing from formal essays to Twitter
feeds. Many written words do not commonly appear in speech. Writers generally
use a limited set of words when communicating: for example if there are a
number of synonyms, a writer will have his own preference as to which of them
to use.
he
is unlikely to use technical vocabulary relating to a subject in which he has
no knowledge or interest.
Understanding
Fluency
Fluency is
a speech language pathology term that means
the smoothness or flow with which sounds, syllables, words and phrases are
joined together when speaking quickly. "Fluency disorders" is used as
a collective term for cluttering and stuttering.
Both disorders have breaks in the fluidity of speech, and both have the fluency
breakdown of repetition of parts of speech. Fluency disorders are most often
complex in nature and they tend to occur more often in boys than in girls.
Language fluency
Language fluency is used informally to denote broadly a high level of language proficiency, most typically foreign
language or another learned language, and more narrowly to denote fluid
language use, as opposed to slow, halting use. In this narrow sense, fluency is
necessary but not sufficient for language proficiency: fluent
language users (particularly uneducated native speakers) may have narrow
vocabularies, limited discourse strategies, and inaccurate word use. They may
be illiterate, as well. Native language speakers are often incorrectly referred
to as fluent.
Fluency in English is basically
one’s ability to be understood by both native and non native listeners. A
higher level would be bilingual, which indicates one is native in two languages,
either having learned them simultaneously or one after the other.
In the sense of proficiency,
"fluency" encompasses a number of related but separable skills:
Reading:
the ability to easily read and understand texts written in the language
Writing: the ability to formulate written texts in the
language;
Comprehension:
the ability to follow and understand speech in the language;
Speaking:
the ability to produce speech in the language and be understood by its
speakers.
Reading
Comprehension : the level of understanding of text/messages.
To some extent, these skills can be
acquired separately. Generally, the later in life a learner approaches the
study of a foreign language, the harder it is to acquire receptive (auditory)
comprehension and fluent production (speaking) skills; however, the Critical Period Hypothesis is a hotly
debated topic. For instance, reading and writing skills in a foreign language
can be acquired more easily after the primary language acquisition period of youth is over.]
Reading fluency
Reading fluency is often confused
with language fluency (see above). Reading fluency is the ability to read text
accurately and quickly. Fluency bridges word decoding and comprehension. Comprehension is understanding
what has been read. Fluency is a set of skills that allows readers to rapidly
decode text while maintaining a high level of comprehension (National Reading
Panel, 2001).
Reading fluency encompasses both
rate of words read per minute, as well as the ability to read with expression.
A first benchmark for fluency is
being able to "sight read" some words. The idea is that children will
recognize on sight the most common words written in their native language and
that such instant reading of these words will allow them to read and understand
text more quickly.
As children learn to read, the speed
at which they read becomes an important measure of fluency.
Understanding
Reporting Back Strategy
Reporting
back is a strategy used to support students in bridging the gap between spoken
and written language (Gibbons,1993).
This strategy can be used as follow-up after any active-learning
experience. The students describe
their experience, using vocabulary that
isconnected with the experience so that the rest of the class has a clear
understanding of the materials and sequence of actions that were used. The
students then write their reporting-back
summary to be included in the class daily-news,or their daily learning log.
Methodology
The
order of reporting back strategy is by taking seven steps in teaching learning. First, prepare the
students for action. Teacher must prepare the students for an active-learning
experience by giving direction for the activity and modeling what is expected.
Then, follow up the demonstration by saying, “After you finished your activity,
you will report back to the class describing what hapenned. For example, if you
were reporting back to the class on the experience just demonstrated,you would
say, ‘I opened the jar of the red paint and I opened the jar of the blue paint. I took an
eyedropper and use it to draw up some of the red paint and dropped two drops of
red paint into the plastic cup. Next, used the eyedropper to draw up some blue
paint and put two drops of blue paint into the plastic cup. I took a toothpick
ad swirled the two colours together in th cup. When they mixed together , they
turned into purple paint. I learned that red and blue paint mix together to
make purple paint.’ After you finish your activity, you and your partner need
to decide what to say when you report back to the class.”
Second,
list and review the steps. After explaining the procedure to the students,list
the steps on the whiteboard or on a chart.
Third,
verbalize the action. In this step, during the activity, circulate throughout
the classroom, reinforcing the vocabulary being used and scaffolding language
by verbalizing what the teacher see going on. For example, as one pair is
dropping paint into the cup the techer might say,’’ You are dropping the paint
into the cup. I see you dropping one,two,three drops of yellow into the cup”.
Fourth,
pair for verbal practice. It means that after the activity, the teacher give
the pairs time to practice reporting back dialogues. Then,ask each each pair of
students to report back to the group. This work best if each pair has a
slightly different task. In the colour-mixing activity each pair might have
different colours or different numbers of drops to use so that the reporting
back stays interesting and non repetitive.
Fifth,
celebrate the achievements. After each pair reports back, list important words
that they used on the whiteboard and celebrate their use of interesting and important vocabulary.
Emphasize the role the vocabulary in helping the audience to visualize exactly
what the pair did.
Sixth,
write the report. After the students completing the reporting back, they write
their verbal report and use it either as news items for the class daily news or
as daily entries in their learning log.
Seventh,
as the last steps of reporting back strategy is asses students progress and
undersatnding. While the students report back, take time to take brief notes to
include in anecdotal records. Anecdotal record taken periodically over time
serve as rich descriptions of students’ verbal communication progress and are
important additions to individual students portfolios.
Variations
on the Theme
If the reporting-back takes the form
of a list, take three or so items from the first group, three more from the
next, and so on. Items which come up more than once can be underlined in the
colour of the group mentioning them the second or third time.
If the researcher is looking for
"good" and "bad" features of a topic, or any similar
contrasting construct, use three columns on the flip-chart instead of two,
there are always likely to be some items which can be both or either depending
on the circumstances, so a middle column is useful.
If reseacher is sufficiently
familiar with the technique, and using a large whiteboard or chalkboard instead
of a flip-pad, use the reports to build up a mind-map of the
topic area instead of taking them down in a linear fashion. This helps to group
the ideas for later discussion.
Researcher can similarly use Post-it
(similar trademark disclaimer) notes with key-words on them. If researcher have
an outline or structure on a whiteboard, the group reporters can come up and
place their sticky notes wherever they think they best fit on the outline.
Since such notes will be rather small, make sure everyone gets a chance to mill
around the board and read everything: if a break follows the reporting-back, so
much the better .
The Plenary
Discussion
First, make sure that researcher
have one: if the researcher plough straight on to the next topic, studentsnts
will feel all their efforts have been ignored.
Respect the reported findings. Be
careful about how soon the point out errors in the findings, or points which
have not been mentioned. In particular, if there is an "official"
answer to the question, do not reveal it in such a way as to "trump"
or devalue what the groups have come up with.
Small groups can be swayed by the
strong convictions of one member, particularly someone speaking from direct
experience (however atypical). Researcher will have checked that the report
truly represents the group's views, but be careful how teacher handle the
vociferous and opinionated member, who often gets her- or himself selected as a
reporter. She or he can set up arguments which drift from the main topic, and
(usually) the most effective strategy is to recall the plenary to that topic,
without dismissing the vocal one.
Sometimes there is no response from
the whole group. This is discouraging, and can lead to collusion with anyone
who is prepared to say something, however marginally relevant. If the
plenary group is secure enough, use silence, there is nothing in your contract
which says you have to fill every gap! If not, show that you value the work
they have done, by identifying themes in the reports and commenting on them,
ask if anyone has anything they would like to add or ask, and move on. The
duration of plenaries is unpredictable, so have something available as a
standby in case the discussion does not last.
But, having
dealt with the problem symptomatically, do ask yourself about the underlying
reasons, and try to provide the security which will let people contribute.
Conclusion
This
paper presented an analysis of what is reporting strategy and how to improving vocabulary and fluency
by using reporting back strategy. Which is doing reporting back strategy will
improve the vocabulary ability and the fluency of the students, as vocabulary
is an important elements that should students mastery in learning English as a
second language in the world. As a
consequence English teachers are demanded to be responsible for the failure in
making the students capable of using English for communication both productively
and receptively. To alleviate this ordeal, educators, practitioners, and policy
makers quite often pay very much attention to research dealing with the
curriculum, methodology and teachers excluding such significant variables as
the learner perspective.
References
Adolphs
& Schmitt (2003) Lexical Coverage of Spoken Discourse .
Cambridge
Advanced Learners Dictionary.
Paivio,
A (1986) Mental Representations : A Dual Coding Approach. New York: Oxford
University Press
Sagarra,Nuria
& Alba (2006). The keys in the keyword : L2 Vocabulary Learning Methods
with Beginning Learners of Spanish. The Modern Language Journal,
90,ii.p.228-243.
Wren,Sebastian.
Balanced Reading.com.
Stahl, Steven A (1999). Vocabulary
Development. Cambridge: Brookline Books p. 3. "The Cognitive Foundations
of Learning to Read: A Framework", Southwest Educational Development
Laboratory, p. 14.
ora mudeng mbak bahasanya. kasih gadget translate donk blognya. :D
BalasHapus