USING FLASHCARDS TO IMPROVE 7th GRADE

STUDENTS’ VOCABULARY: A CLASSROOM ACTION RESEARCH IN SMPN Alok

Maumere

CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION

This chapter introduces four main parts of the study. Firstly, research

background elaborates the reasons why the study is conducted. Secondly, research

questions which contain two questions. Thirdly, research significance which

identifies the contribution of the study. The last is definition of terms that defines

key words or phrases specifically used in the study.

A. Research Background

Communication is one of the activities in life. According to Charles W.

Keidler (1999), language is a system of symbols through which people

communicate. The symbols may be spoken, written, or signed with the hand.

Communication is used to deliver our ideas, thoughts, and emotions to those

around us. People will communicate using a lot of vocabulary that they have

learned. Vocabulary will help the students to communicate and deliver some

information to others. Therefore, the students need to choose the correct diction,

word or vocabulary.

In Indonesia, English is a foreign language which is taught in the schools

since English has become an international language. It is also used by most

communities in the world. People have known that they use spoken and written

words every single day to communicate with others. Since that vocabulary

becomes the basic competence in learning English before the four skills and it is
an important element in teaching English. Moreover, the teacher and students will

get the same thought by using appropriate and correct vocabulary.

Hatch and Brown (1995) state that vocabulary is the foundation to build

language which plays a fundamental role in communication. In the other words

vocabulary is very important in languange building and is the main priority in

learning English. People can express their ideas and understand the other basic

competence well by mastering vocabulary. Beginner students of Junior High

School will study basic English to learn about simple words or things in their

surroundings. Thus it is expected that students are able to understand simple

English used in daily context through mastering vocabulary first.

Since vocabulary mastery has always been an important part of English as a

foreign language, the teachers need to pay attention seriously in teaching

vocabulary, especially to the beginner students. The researcher chose a school in

Yogyakarta which was SMP Negeri Alok. This school is located in Wairklau Street

No. 1 Maumere .

The character education at SMP Negeri Alok is a value education and moral

education that aims to develop the learners’ ability to give good

decisions in accordance to the God’s will. Character education is the process of

formation of attitudes and behaviors that are latently resolved and automated

through the process of repetitive learning.. SMP Negri Alok Maumere implemented

a program of character building from a young age. So it can play an active role

both in the classroom, school, family, and in the community. In this process the

students will grow in terms of: self-discovery, discipline, cooperation,

responsibility, humility, and commitmen. This school also taught about life skill

to help the students face their problem of life and life naturally without feeling

pressured, independently, pro-actively, and creatively to find the solution of life

problems.

The students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere come from various economic

status, most of them are from the middle to lower class. It can be proven by a lot

of parents come to school to ask a dispensation of school’s payment or SPP even

though the government has helped them with BOS and also cross-subsidized that

can help each other. This case happens when the mid-term test and final test will be

implemented. Therefore, each school needs an appropriate educational curriculum

to the characteristics of the school and the daily life experiences of the students.

The curriculum must contain of diversity so that it can produce relevant graduates.

Based on the researcher’s teaching experience, the problems that always

occur when teaching English in a seventh grade student of SMP Negeri Alok is the

students’ vocabulary which is low. The students will be confused when they heard

the new words. Moreover, most of the students have

many difficulties to master the vocabulary, especially in understanding the

meaning of the words, pronouncing the words, and sometimes spelling the words.

Teaching in an interesting way is one of the teacher’s techniques to make

the student understand more easily. Nowadays, media are growing and become

modern. A traditional medium may not be found anymore because it is replaced

with digital medium. However, digital medium will reduce students' attention to

the teachers because they will depend on the digital medium and they will learn

independently. The teachers can use some media to teach vocabulary, for example

video, music, flashcards, and others. Therefore the researcher chooses a traditional

medium in the form of flashcards to help students in learning vocabulary.

According to Cross (1991), flashcard is a simple picture on a piece of card

or paper, which is probably the most widely used visual aids in language teaching.

It means that flashcard is one of media, which consist of a picture that can help

the teachers teach English easily. In addition, flashcards are very simple but very

effective for an individual to study a particular topic. Using flashcards to teach the

students vocabulary is also interesting because the teachers can show the picture

which helps the students understand the meaning of each picture. This study

focuses on flashcards as media in teaching vocabulary. The researcher conducts a

class action research to improve students’ understanding of vocabulary for the

seventh grade students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere using flashcards.

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B. Research Questions

The focus of this study is figure out the students’ improvement in

understanding vocabulary using flashcards. Based on the background, the research

questions of the study are:

1. How are flashcards used in improving the vocabulary of seventh grade

students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere ?

2. To what extent do flashcards improve the vocabulary of the seventh grade

students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere?

C. Research Significance

This study gives three significant values. The first significant value is for

the students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere. The second significant value is for the

seven grade teacher in SMP Negeri Alok Maumere. The last significant value is for

the future researchers.

1. For the students of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere

This research can be used as new strategy to improve students’

understanding in vocabulary using flashcards. They were not bored with

the learning process and they can learn English well.

2. For the seven grade teacher in SMP Negeri Alok Maumere

This research can help the teacher improve students’ vocabulary easily

using flashcards. Moreover, flashcards are one of the best media to

teach vocabulary for beginners and it is an interesting media for the

teacher.
 3. For future researchers.

This research can be used as the reference for future researchers who

are interested in using flashcards to improve the students’ vocabulary.

D. Definition of Term

There are several terms the writer uses in this study. The definitions of

terms are as follows:

1. Flashcards

In this study, flashcards refer to a simple picture on a piece of card or paper,

which are probably the most widely used visual aids in language teaching.

(Cross, 1991, p.119)

2. Vocabulary

In this study, vocabulary refers to a list or set of words for a particular

language or a list or set of words that individual speaker of a language might

use (Hatch & Brown, 1995, p.1)

 CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

This chapter has two major parts, namely theoretical description and

theoretical framework. The theoretical description presents some theories directly

related to the research that the researcher conducts. This part covers the theories

of (1) teaching vocabulary and (2) flashcards. Meanwhile, the theoretical

framework presents the summary of the theories that are used to answer the

research problems.

A. Theoretical Description

In this section the researcher will discuss the theories underlying this study.

There are two major theories explained in this section. Firstly, the researcher

elaborates the theories of vocabulary that includes vocabulary definition, types of

vocabulary and the procedure of teaching vocabulary. In the second section, the

researcher presents the theories related to flashcards that covers the definition of

flashcards, the advantage and disadvantage using flashcards, and the application of

flashcards as teaching aid to teach vocabulary.

1. Vocabulary

In this part, the researcher reviews some points about vocabulary: the

definition of vocabulary, types of vocabulary and the procedure of teaching

vocabulary. All the theories are essential to be presented in this section to help the

researcher answer the research questions.

a. Definition of Vocabulary

According to Hatch and Brown (1995, p.1) vocabulary refers to a list or set

of words for a particular language or a list or set of words that individual speaker of

a language might use. It means that vocabulary as the words of certain language

which are used by the speaker to communicate with other people. Hatch and Brown

(1995, p.1) also state that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical

order. Moreover, Hornby (1986) said that vocabulary is the total number of words

in a language. It means that vocabulary is a list of words that have meanings that

are used to communicate between one person to another.

Vocabulary also can be defined as "words we must know to communicate

effectively; words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in listening

(receptive vocabulary)" (Neuman & Dwyer 2009). The other expert also said that

vocabulary is a core component of language proficiency and provides much of the

basis for how learners speak, listen, read and write (Richards & Renandya, 2002).

Without an extensive vocabulary and strategies for acquiring new vocabulary,

learners will have some difficulties to listen the native speaker, to use language in

different context, to read or watch the television.

From the definitions above, it can be assumed that vocabulary is a list of

words as a basic component of language proficiency which has a form

(pronunciation and spelling), expression, and meanings that are used to

communicate between one person to another. That is the reason why it is

important to learn vocabulary.

b. Types of Vocabulary

Some experts divide vocabulary into two types: active and passive

vocabulary. Harmer (1991) distinguishes between these two types of vocabulary.

The first type of vocabulary refers to the one that the students have been taught

and that they are expected to be able to use. Meanwhile, the second one refers to

the words which the students will recognize when they know the words, but which

they will probably not be able to pronounce. Haycraft (1978), quoted by Hatch and

Brown (1995), indicate two kinds of vocabulary, namely receptive vocabulary and

productive vocabulary.

1) Receptive Vocabulary

Receptive vocabulary is words that learners recognize and understand when

they are used in context, but they cannot produce. It is vocabulary that learners

recognize when they see or meet in reading text but do not use it in speaking and

writing (Stuart Webb, 2009).

2) Productive Vocabulary

Productive vocabulary is the words that the learners understand and can

pronounce correctly and use constructively in speaking and writing. It involves

what is needed for receptive vocabulary plus the ability to speak or write at the

appropriate time. Therefore, productive vocabulary can be addressed as an active

process, because the learners can produce the words to express their thoughts to

others (Stuart Webb, 2005).

To sum up, there are two types of vocabulary. They are receptive vocabulary

and productive vocabulary. Receptive vocabulary is the ability to recognize a word

and recall its meaning when it is met. Then, productive vocabulary involves what

is needed for receptive vocabulary plus the ability to speak or write at the

appropriate time.

c. Teaching Vocabulary

The first step in successful teaching vocabulary is to identify the difficulties

that faced by the students. However, the teacher can use some techniques to teach

vocabulary. According to Cross (1991) the procedure of teaching vocabulary can

be divided into three stages. They are:

a) Presentation

In this stage, the teachers can use various techniques which are

recommended in the previous discussion. However, the teachers have

to be careful in selecting the techniques that they used in teaching

activity;

b) Practice

In the second stage, the teacher gives some exercises to the students in

order to practice the subject items being learnt, making completion,

 matching, words classification, etc. Those are several types of exercise

that can be used by the teacher in this stage;

c) Production

In this stage the students are expected to apply the new vocabulary

through the speaking activities or writing activities.

Paul Nation (2001) explain that when teaching a word the teacher must

teach three things; (1) teaching the shape or form of a word, (2) teaching the

meaning of a word, (3) and teaching the form and the meaning of the word go

together. The teacher can teach the form of a word in many ways. There are some

ways which can help the learners perceive the word through the three separate

sense, they are visually which means the learners use their sense of seeing,

tactilely which means the learners use their sense of touching, and aurally which

means the learners use their sense of hearing. While, the teacher can teach the

meaning of a word by using different way such as demonstration, using picture,

and explanation. Then, the teacher combines those two ways in order to get the

correct meaning.
2. Flashcards

In this part, the researcher reviews some points about flashcards which are

the definition of flashcards, flashcards as teaching aids, advantages and

disadvantages of using flashcards. All the theories are essential to be presented in

this section to help the researcher answer the research questions.

a. Definition of Flashcards

There are some definitions about flashcards. According to Jeremy Harmer

(1991), flashcards are smallish cards which the teacher can hold up for the

students to see. Flashcards are a card with words or numbers of pictures that are

flashed to a class by the teacher. Flashcards are a type of study aid that is designed

to present an individual with a single unique question or problem that relates to a

specific topic. Usually each flashcard is simply in index card or sheet of paper that

has the question, problem, or situation to consider on one side of the card and the

answer to the question or problem or the evaluation of the situations on the other

side of the card. As a result, flashcards are very simple but very effective way for

an individual to study a particular topic.

Haycraft (1978) states that flashcards are cards on which words or pictures

which printed or drawn. In addition, Haycraft (1978) states that there are two types

of flashcards. They are word flashcards and picture flashcards. Word flashcards are

cards on which words have been printed. When practicing word order, the teacher

can use a number of cards representing all the words in a sentence. The word

flashcards also can be used to practice structure. Besides, picture flashcards are

useful for presenting, practicing and revising vocabulary or as prompts for other
activities – for example, to illustrate the characters in a dialogue, to help students

improvise. Picture flashcards can be used as prompts for simple substitution drills.

Picture flashcards are also useful for identifying verbs on action.

From some definition above, it can be conclude that flashcards are card

bearing picture and word given by the teachers when the teachers are explaining

the material to their students. It helps the teacher to handle and teach the material to

the students easily. Flashcards have various sizes based on student’s specific need.

They are colourful which is used to memorize and understand new vocabulary.

Besides, flashcard is one of visual aids which are used to make the students are

more interesting and enjoy in teaching learning process and to improve student’s

understanding on the material given by the teacher.

b. Flashcards as Teaching Aids

As a foreign language, English is not used in daily society. English is

considered difficult subject studied for the students. So it needs approach

consideration and strategy. In studying English in order to be easy and interesting,

an English teacher should use a variety of teaching aids to explain the material. The

teachers should use an effective strategy, be creative and able to adapt in teaching

and learning process. If the teachers use one method, the students will feel bored

in the subject.
 In other words, teaching aids are called media. It means something that can

be used for delivering a message from the sender to the receiver. Medium also

serves a tool that can be seen, heard, read or spoken and good instrument used in

teaching learning activity.

Based on Anderson (1976) media are classified in to 10 categories such as

audio tapes, print textbook, audio-print, OHT, audio visual projection, visual

motion, audio visual motion, physical object, human, and computer. Then, in

general there are three kinds of media; they are visual, audio, and audio visual aid.

The first is a visual aid; this is the medium which can be seen. For example

picture, flashcards, photo, map, miniature and reality. The second medium is an

audio aids; this medium which can be heard. The example is cassette recorder.

The last is an audio visual aid; this is medium which can be heard and also can be

seen. For example the teacher uses a film, or TV program as the teaching medium.

From the explanation above the researcher concludes that medium is a tool

to deliver a message from the teacher to the students. In this research, the

researcher uses flashcards as the wonderful teaching tools. Therefore, the

researcher uses visual aid as the teaching medium because visual aid has important

role in learning activity.

c. Application of using Flashcards to Teach Vocabulary as the Teaching

Aid

The researcher uses flashcards to teach vocabulary because flashcards are

visual aids which can give motivation and stimulation in teaching process. The

students can improve their understanding on vocabulary easily. Harmer (2001) said
that flashcards are particularly useful for drilling grammar item for cueing
different sentence or practicing vocabulary. There are several applications of

flashcards as teaching aid to teach vocabulary:

1. Drills can be done to help the student understand the new vocabulary. This

technique can be used frequently.

2. Matching Activity is the activity which the students need to match the

written flashcards with the pictures in face down memory game.

3. Guess the card is the activity in which the students try to guess what the

picture it is.

4. The mime trick game is the game that asks the students to mime the action.

5. Describing the action is activity that asks the students to tell what they see

on the card.

6. Act it out is a fun activity to learn vocabulary. One of the students is asked

to act out the word and the other guess the word.

These are some applications of using flashcards to teach vocabulary. The

researcher considers that application of flashcards above can be used to teach

vocabulary for seventh grade student of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere.

B. Theoretical Framework

From the discussion in the theoretical description, the researcher

establishes a theoretical framework for this research. The researcher concerned

with all the theories about vocabulary and flashcards. As is Neumann & Dwyer

(2009) state that vocabulary also can be defined as "words we must know to

communicate effectively; words in speaking (expressive vocabulary) and words in

listening (receptive vocabulary)". From that definition it means that vocabulary in

an effective communication which uses in life whether it is spoken or written. The

researcher uses flashcards to teach vocabulary, as the teaching media to help the

students improve their vocabulary. According to Cross (1991: 11-13) the procedure

of teaching vocabulary can be divided into three stages, they are presentation,

practice and production. Therefore the researcher will use those theories to conduct

the research.
 CHAPTER III
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This chapter presents the methodology used in conducting the research.

This chapter covers research method, research setting, research participants,

instruments and data gathering technique and also data analysis technique.

A. Research Method

The study was conducted by using classroom action research. Classroom

action research can be defined as “an approach in which the action researcher and a

client collaborate in the diagnosis of the problem and in the development of a

solution based on the diagnosis” (Bryman & Bell, 2011, p.414). In other words,

one of the main characteristic traits of this type of research relates to collaboration

between researcher and member of organisation in order to solve organizational

problems. In addition, Bogdan & Bilken, 1992 explain that action research is the

systematic collection of information that is designed to bring about social change.

McNiff (1999) defined action research as the name given to an increasingly

popular movement in educational research that encourages teachers to be

reflective of their own practices in order to enhance the quality of education for

themselves and their students. Moreover, action research is essentially a series of

cycles of reflection, planning and action. Kemmis and McTaggart (1988)

developed a concept for action research. They proposed a spiral model comprising

four steps: planning, acting, observing and reflecting .

1. Planning 19

Planning an action research by focusing on who, what, when, where, and

how the action will be done to improve the student’s ability. This action also

should be prepared based on pre-observation in the class.

2. Action

An action should be done in conscious and controlled way. After

planning some strategy the next step is action, then the plan is implemented

as an action in classroom.

3. Observation

Observation is the next step for monitoring and watching closely

teaching learning process and collecting the data from result of action. The

researcher prepared the observation paper to know the class condition when

the action is done, then the researcher and the collaborator (English teacher

for first graders) discuss the result of observation, and the problem faced

when teaching learning process and look for the best solution to solve the

problem. In this step, the researcher observes and takes notes during the

teaching learning process.

4. Reflection.

Reflection means to analyze the result based on the data that have been

collected to determine the next action in the next cycle. In this step, the

researcher could observe the result on the process of previous action, the

progress happened, and also about the positive and negative sides.
 Based on the explanation above the researcher concludes that classroom

action research is a systematic study and it is a form of self-reflective inquiry

undertaken or carried out by participants in educational situation in order to

improve the students’ ability. In this study, classroom action research means an

educational attempt, which was done by the writer to improve students’

vocabulary for seventh grade student of SMP Negeri Alok Maumere by using

flashcards.

B. Research Setting

The research was conducted in SMP Negeri Alok Maumere which is located

at Street, number 1 Maumere. The researcher chose one of the classes in seventh

grade. In details, the research was conducted during the even semester of

2020/2021 academic year. Then, the researcher conducted the research starting

from February 2017.

C. Research Participants

The research was a classroom action research and the sample needed was

purposive sample. Purposive sample is research sample based on personal

judgement of the researcher (Fraenkel, Wallen, & Hyun, 2012). The participants

who became the sample of research were seventh grade students of SMP Negeri

Alok Maumere academic 2020/2021 class 7D. The class consist of ten

(10) male students and nine (10) female students. However, four (4) of the

students did not come completely from the pre-test until post-test. Therefore, the

researcher only had sixteen (16) participants.

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D. Instruments and Data Gathering Technique

In conducting a research, some instruments are needed so these instruments

can help the researcher to organize the study easily and the data collection would

complete. There were three types of instruments used in this research, namely

interview, classroom observation, and tests. However the researcher used

observation forms for pre-research. Besides, the tests were divided into two steps.

They were pre-test and post-test. Each test had different function but the result was

the combination of both tests. The following is the detailed explanation of each

instrument along with the data gathering technique.

1. Observation

The first instrument was classroom observation. This instrument was an

observation which focused on the understanding of how social event of the

language classroom were enacted. In this classroom observation, the objects of

observation were students’ activities in learning vocabulary. The observation

was carried out twice, before the cycle I and cycle II. Before the cycle II, the

researcher needed a partner to help observing the class when the teaching-

learning process was done. The researcher used the checklist observation to

make it more systematic. Best (2006) explained that a check list was the

simplest device which consists of prepared list items. The items were in the

form of number which indicated some appropriate statetments word or number.

2. Test

A test was a method for collecting data by using questions. According to

Heaton (1975), test is an important part of every teaching and learning

 experience; both testing and teaching are so closely interrelated. A test was

used to examine the student’s knowledge of something to determine what he or

she have known or have learnt. Tests may be constructed primarily as devices

to reinforce learning and to motivate the students’ performance in the language.

In this research, the researcher used written test. Henson and Janke

(1975) explain that the varieties of written test are subjective and objective.

Objective written test may include true false, multiple choice and matching

items. The researcher used an objective test in this research by using matching

items. This research consisted of two tests. They are pre-test and post-test. The

researcher gave the pre-test to the student after the researcher taught vocabulary

without flashcards with 15 questions to find the meaning in Indonesian and

English. After that, the researcher began to conduct the action research cycle by

using flashcards. Then, the researcher gave a test that consists of 30 vocabulary

list questions as the post test.

3. Interview

Interview was the post research instrument that the researcher used. It was

an open-ended interview using a list of questions to ask the students about the

implementation of using flashcards in teaching learning process. It can be

concluded, this research uses an interview instrument, namely open-ended

interview.

From the explanation above the researcher concluded that there were four

components in one cycle for doing classroom action research. It consisted of

planning, acting, observing and reflecting. Researcher prepared two cycles, there

were pre-test, cycles 1, cycle 2 and post-test. After that the researcher did the
interview to know deeply about the students’ improvements. The students would23

success if they can pass the Minimum Mastery Criteria (KKM) score that the

teacher used.

E. Data Analysis Technique

In this part, the researcher explained about the method of analyzing test

and the process to assess the data.

1. Method of analyzing test

After collecting the data through tests, the researcher analyzed the data using

percentage descriptive quantitative analysis in giving the test score. The

processes were:

a. After the test, the researcher gave a score. Then, the maximum score was 100.

b. Determine the interval grade of students by counting the number correct

answer. The percentages of the score test can be counted by using the

formula:

𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 𝑟i𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑠𝑤𝑒𝑟

𝑠𝑐𝑜𝑟𝑒 = 𝑥 100%
𝑡𝑜𝑡𝑎𝑙 i𝑡𝑒𝑚𝑠

c. The mean of the pre-test and the post-test can be calculated with the formula

as follows:
∑𝑥 ∑𝑦
𝑥̅ = 𝑦̅ =
𝑁 𝑁

In which :
 𝑥̅ = mean of pre-test score

𝑦̅ = mean of post-test score

𝑁 = number of students

It can summarize in the table:

KIND OF TEST Pre-test Post-test Post-test

( cycle 1) (cycle 2)

TOTAL SCORE
MEAN SCORE

INCREASING OF
THE STUDENTS
MEAN SCORE

Finally, by analyzing the qualitative and quantitative data, the researcher

can make conclusion whether or not the use of flashcards can improve the

students’ vocabulary. If most all of the students give positive responses to the

teaching learning process and their post-test score is higher than the pre-test score,

the technique is successful. On the contrary, if the students give negative

responses to the teaching learning process and their post-test score is lower than

pre-test score, the technique is not successful.