Share masalah English sedikit..semoga bermanfaat.. :)

Teaching Vocabulary through Demonstrative Method for Young Learners

English is a compulsory subject in Indonesia which had been taught formally to Indonesian students since they were in Elementary High School up to college or university levels. There are two reasons why it has to be taught to the students in Indonesia. First, nowadays there are many books written in English, and second, there are many sources provide in English, such as internet, Yahoo, Google, and many others. 

English has been taught in Indonesia at Elementary school as one of the local content subjects. It is hoped that the students will learn and comprehend English as early as possible and can practice simple conversation. According to “Ministry of Natonal Education ”(1993), the aim of teaching English at Elementary School as follows: (1) “Siswa dapat memahami kata-kata dalam bahasa Inggris yang sering ditemukan dan digunakan dalam kehidupan sehari hari. (2) Siswa mampu berkomunikasi dalam bahasa Inggris secara sederhana”.

In communication, students need vocabulary which can support them to produces and use meaningful sentences because vocabulary provide organ of sentence. That’s why vocabulary is very important to be mastered. Jeremy Harmer (1991, 153) classifies that “Then it is vocabulary that provides the vital organs and flesh”. For that reason the students have to develop their vocabulary and master it in order to be able to communicate with other.

Learning English should include the four language skills, are: reading, listening, speaking, and writing. Furthermore, in language teaching there are 3 components that must be taught, namely grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation. Vocabulary is the most important component to master by student, because it is a basic ability to develop language skill. (Kasihani Suyanto 2008:43)

One of the methods which is suitable for children in learning vocabulary is Total Physical Response (TPR) method. James Asher (http:/www.tpr-world.com,1 ) stated that “use TPR method for new vocabulary and grammar, to help students immediately understand the target language in chunks rather than word-by-word. This instant success is absolutely thrilling for students”. It shows that using Total Physical Respond method is effective to help the students to learn the target language because the students practice directly using the vocabulary in real context. By doing so, the students can develop the storage of the vocabulary in a short time. Besides that Total Physical Respond method also helps the children to understand and memorize linguistic input because the children use body movement as media in the process of learning.

Here also the researcher related TPR in this research theory. Total Physical Response (TPR) is a method relies on the assumption that when learning a second or additional language, language is internalized through a process of codebreaking similar to first language development and that the process allows for a long period of listening and developing comprehension prior to production.