LITERATURE REVIEW

What is Vocabulary?
Vocabulary is a list of words, which make up a language constitution. The Anglo-Saxons regarded vocabulary as a ‘word –hoard’ or a store of words which is to be owned and treasured. To the Chinese, however, it is a sea of words to be fished. In using language to express ourselves and communicate with one another, we use words. The accuracy and clarity of our message depends on the words we choose (Nesamalar Chitravelu et al, 2001)

The Importance of Vocabulary
There are very strong reasons for vocabulary to be taught by the teacher and learned by the learners. It can be considered as being a very imperative, if not the most imperative, element in language learning. Learners feel that many of their difficulties in both receptive and productive language use result from an inadequate vocabulary. Simply increasing learners’ vocabulary without giving attention to putting this knowledge to use may not be effective, but getting learners to do language tasks when their vocabulary is inadequate for the task is a frustrating experience.

Research on readability (Chall, 1958; Klare, 1974-1975) stresses the importance of vocabulary knowledge in learning, as does research on academic achievement (Saville-Troike, 1984)

In other words, giving attention to vocabulary is unavoidable. Even the most formal or communication-directed approaches to language teaching must deal with needed vocabulary in one way or other.

The Use of Vocabulary in English Language
There are two ways in learning vocabulary - direct and indirect vocabulary learning. In direct vocabulary learning, the learners do exercises and activities that focus their attention on vocabulary. Such exercises include word-building exercises, guessing words from context when this is done as a class exercise, learning words in lists, and vocabulary games whilst in indirect vocabulary learning is focused on some other feature, usually the message that is conveyed by a speaker or writer. If the amount of unknown vocabulary is low in such messages, considerable vocabulary learning can occur even though the learners’ attention is not directed toward vocabulary learning.

Krashen (1981a) calls these the input theory of language learning. He believes that certain conditions must apply for such learning to occur. First, the learners must be interested in understanding the message. From the point of view of vocabulary learning, this interest creates a need to understand the unknown words in the message. Second, the message should contain some items that are just outside the learners’ present level of achievement. These items, however, should be understandable from the context in which they occur. This includes both language and non-language context. Third, the learners should not feel worried or threatened by their contact with the foreign language.

Opportunities for indirect vocabulary learning should occupy much more time in a language-learning course than direct vocabulary learning activities. This is in fact just another way of saying that contact with language in use should be given more time than decontextualized activities. The range of contextualized activities of course covers the range of the uses of language. This conditions for language learning can take place in indirect vocabulary learning (Krashen, 1981b)

The Review of Hangman
Hangman is a game, which is specifically invented for language learners who want to improve their knowledge in their vocabulary. This game consists a sense of relation, which is hyponyms. Hyponyms are words that can be related in meaning so that the meaning of one word includes the meaning of the other word. For an example, one is more general in meaning than the other (Nesamalar Chitravelu et al, 2001) In our game we will be using four terms which are occupation, fruits, animals and transportation. For an instance, let us take a look at the term fruits. This term includes specific item such as a guava, which is regarded as a hyponym. Whilst, the general term fruits are called as a super ordinate.

For our set induction, we will be showing pictures and objects to the students for them to name the items and classify them into their categories. This way of introducing our lesson is called as visual techniques. Visual techniques are extremely effective in conveying meaning. It is also very interesting stimuli for various language activities to generate the production of vocabulary items. According to Chitravelu et al (2001) there are two types of activity that can be used using visual for the teaching of vocabulary- word picture associations and using diagrams. We will be using the preceding activity for our game. Word picture associations presents a picture of a single object and asks the students to tell what words can be associated with it.

There are basically two approaches will be implemented in our game. They are inductive and deductive approach. We will proceed the game with the inductive approach in the set induction. Inductive approach or discovery method is where the students are first given a number of sample sentences containing the target forms and then the teacher guides the students into deriving the rule for themselves. As mentioned earlier, in the set induction, the students will be shown pictures and objects to be named and classified into their categories.

As for our following approach, the deductive method will be used in the game. For this approach, the teacher explicitly explains the rules when presenting the new language. Later on, he or she will move on to practices in the application of these rules. This method is applied in the game session whereby the students are asked to select the category. Following this they have to guess the mystery words by uttering the letters.

Collaborative learning is also one of the elements that will be applied in our game. This learning is pertained because it involves students to work together to solve a problem, complete a task or create a product. Gerlach (1994) says, “collaborative learning is based on the idea that learning is a naturally social act in which the participants talk among themselves. It is through the talk that learning occurs.” In this game, students are allowed to discuss among themselves within five seconds in order to give a letter for them to guess the exact answer.

As a conclusion, all these terms used in our game are hopefully helpful for the students to gauge a better understanding in learning vocabulary and to use it effectively in their daily lives.

References

1.Chitravelu, N., Sithamparam, S. and The, S. C. (1995). ELT Methodology Principles and Practice. Shah Alam: Penerbit Fajar Bakti.
2.Gerlach, J.M.(1994). Is this collaboration? In Bosworth, K. and Hamilton, S.J. (Eds.), Collaborative Learning: Underlying Processes and Effective Techniques, New Directions for Teaching and Learning No.59.
3.Greenall, S. (1984). Language Games and Activities. Great Britain: Hulton Educational Publications Ltd.
4.Klare, G. R. (1974). Assessing Readability. Reading Research Quarterly 10:02-102.
5.Krashen, S. D. (1981a). The Fundamental Pedagogical Principle in Second Language Teaching. Studia Linguistica 35, 1 &2:50-70.
6.Krashen, S. D. (1981b). The Theoretical and Practical Relevance of Simple Codes in Second Language Acquisition. In Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. 119-137.
7.Saville-Troike, M. (1984). What Really Matters in Second Language Learning for Academic Achievement? TESOL Quarterly 18, 2:199-219.
8Wallace, M. J. (1982). Teaching Vocabulary. Great Britain: Heinemann Educational Books Ltd.