INCREASING ENTHUSIASM AND RETENTION OF

MEMORIZING VOCABULARY
IN ENGLISH ACQUISITION AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE
USING SONGS

Submitted to fulfill Psycholinguistics final assignment

Lecturer : Prof. Dr. Syafrizal. M, Pd.

Submitted by:
LIDIASTUTI GULO

ENGLISH POST GRADUATE DEPARTMENT

SULTAN AGENG TIRTAYASA UNIVERSITY
BANTEN
2017

INCREASING ENTHUSIASM AND RETENTION OF

MEMORIZING VOCABULARY
IN ENGLISH ACQUISITION AS FOREIGN LANGUAGE
USING SONGS

I. Introduction

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 There are some differences between language learning and language
acquisition. In learning there is actions which conciously purposes to get
knowledge or mastering a skill. On the contrary, in acquisition somebody get
knowledge unconciusly without formal way of teaching and learning. Speaking
first language is an example of skill which gotten by acquisition.
Children acquiring their first language without being taugt by any adult,
but of course they need to be exposed by the language as much as posible. The
exposure of first language is easy to give because the family and neighbour of the
environment will unconciously give plenty of it. The situation will be different in
second and foreign language acquisition.
Exposure in English will quite hard to find in country like Indonesia where
English is not used as communication language. Class room is might be the only
place where students deal with English.
A decade ago English is start to be given in Junior High school, but today
English has been taught to elementary student and still English skill is low in our
country. Many English teacher teach english like math where they give a lot of
grammatical formula to make English sentences. This method is definitely not
appropriate to teach language. To be effective, teaching and learning proccess
should be done in relaxing and fun atmosphere.
Teacher have to find better way to teach English, a way that much fun but
effective in the same time. Relax and fun situation would make learning proccess
become just as natural as acquisition proccess in term of student wouldnt feel
oppresed in acquiring the knowledge. This situation could be made by using
interresting media such as songs.
The writer choose songs because children usually love to sing a song.
Begin with this love children are expected to be curious and interested in find out
more about the songs and vocabulay in it. In this paper, researcher would use
single subject study to find out how effective songs to be used as media in
acquiring English as foreign language. The subject is very beginner learner so the
acquisation will be focused on vocabulary.
II. Focuss of the discussion
In this paper reseacher will try to answer these question:
a) can songs stimulating anthusiasm and curiousity in acquiring
english
b) are songs effective to be used as media to increase vocabulary
c) are songs can increase the retention of memory of vocabulary.

III. Purposses of the discussion

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 This mini research paper entitled increasing enthusiasm and
retention memorizing vocabulary in English acquisition as foreign
language using songs, purposes to find out wether songs are able to be
used as media to increasing someone vocabulary in foreign language
acquisition. Still relate with increasing vocabulary the research mostly
purposed to find out wether song are able to maintain the memory of
vocabulary which have been aquired last longer in mind.
Beside the puposes above this mini research also want to see
whether the using of songs could increase enthusiasm of children
curiousity to dig more about English as foreign language.

IV. Supporting theories

1. Single-Subject Research
Single subject research gives emphazise toward basic behavior
consep from individual as major aim. This is an experimental research.
There are two methods in single subject research which are qualitatif
method and quantitatif method. Character of qualitatif method is
descriptive, its describe fact sistematicaly, actualy, and acuratly based
on object data that would be analized. Qualitatif method in linguistic
research can not be detached from changing behaviour (behaviour
modification).(creswell, 2010:76)
There are two variable in research, independent variable and
dependent variable. All variable which would be observed has
behaviour modification known as stimulus-respon that result in a
product called operant conditioning.
In single subject research will be done a measurentment of target
behaviour in baseline fase and the repeatasion at least in one
intervension fase.(hasselt and hersen, 1981 via sunanto et al. 2005:55)
Based on behaviourism psychologist, learning activity is marked
by the present of changing behaviour. The behaviour here is the
suitable one with norms and ethic where the one is exist. The
behaviour can be changed by behaviour modification.
Behaviourisme psychology assume that human behaviour is
influenced by environtment and or by the consequences of the
behaviour itself. Environtment here are everything around a person
which infuenced his or her behaviour, that why it is called stimulus.

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 To understand what is behaviour modification, understanding of
behaviour concept is needed. In everyday term some term which
considered has similar mean with behaviour are activity, action,
performance, respon and reaction. So generally behaviour is defined as
something that is done or is said by somebody.
Based on the ability to be observed, behaviour is devided into two
part, direct observable behaviour (overt) and unobservable directly
(covert).
Behaviour modification characteristic that need to be noted by
researcher are:
The behaviour which would be modified should be define
in observable and measured form.
Technic and prosedur of intervention that is chosen always
be aimed to changed the behavior into better one.
The method should be logic and understanable to allow the
repetition of the research.
2. Language acquisition theory
There are two expert who have most wellknown theory about
language acquisition, they are skinner and chomsky. Their theory have
some similarities and also differences.
The similarity is that they believe language ability is acquired. It is
no need to be taught. Child acquiring their language without certain
formal learning and teaching methods. And they also take child as
subject of their language acquisition theory.
Childrens ability to understand language develop faster than their
ability to speak it. chomsky argue that language acquisition is an innate
sructure, or function of the human brain. He believes that there are
structures of the brain that control the interpretation and production of
speech. Children do not need any kind of formal teaching to learn to
speak. But his teori of universal grammar is hard to prove (fernandez,
2011).
In other hand Skinner claimed that children learn language based
on behaviorist reinforcement principle by associating words with their
meanings. Many repetition and example will make children acquire
sophisticated knowledge on language. It means that language input by
exposuring children with it is very important.(Lemetyinen, H. (2012).
Language Acquisition. Retrieve from www.simplypsychology.org?
language.html.

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 Skinner viewed babies as empty vessels which language had to
be put in to. He also viewed language acquisition as a cognitive
behaviour. In his theory child goes through trial and error, they tries
and fails to used correct language until it succeeds, with reinforcement
and shaping provided by the parent gesture which are pleasant to the
child. Skinner differentiated between two types of verbal responses
taht child make:
Verbal behavoiur that is reinforced by the child receiving
something it wants
Verbal behaviour caused by imitating others.
Operant condition of skinner theory can be summarized like bellow.
Stimulus responsereinforcementrepetition.
There are two kinds of reinforcement
Positive reinforcement such as prise and reward
Negative reinforcement such as rebukes and punishment
3. Theory of second language and foreign language acquisition
Stephen Krasen said that laanguage acquisition does not require
extensive use of concious gramatical rules, and does not require
tedious drill. The best methode are supply comprehensible input in
low anxiety situation, containing messages that students really wnt to
hear. Improvement comes from communicative and comprehensible
input, and not from forcing and correcting production.( Krashen,
Stephen D. Principal and Practice in Second Language Acquisition.
Prentice- Hall International, 197).
The acquisition-learning distiction is the most fundamental of all
the hyphotheses is Kransens theory. Acquisition is unconcious way to
get the ability of using language to speak. On the contrary, learning is
concious way to get ability to speak through certain formal learning
methods.
In learning to talk process happens in stages are first
understanding, then one word utterances, then two word phrases and
soson. Stephen Krasen mention five stages of second alnguage
acquitition:
Preproduction
Early production
Speech emergence
Intermediate fluency
Advanced fluency

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 http://www.ascd.org browsed in January 20, 2017.

V. Research Methodolareogyr
1. Research object
Reseacrh object in this research is a 5 years old girl name Nismara
Sahasika. She was born in march 23, 2011. Nismaras father and
Mother use Indonesian as daily conversation language, but almost all
her friend using Sundanesse as daily conversation. Nismara really like
sing and listen songs. Today there are so many educative English
children songs. Researcher wants to make an experiment on Nismara
toward hoe effective the usage of English children songs to increase
her English vocabulary and maintain it in her memory.
2. Research setting
This experiment will be done in Nismara house. Researcher will
expose her with some glish vocabulay in two methods. First method is
done simply by telling her the English word and the meaning as often
as posible as long as she want it. Second method will be done by
taught her English children song as often as posible as long as she
want it. While exposing her with the songs, she will be told what the
meaning of the song word by word. Each method will last in three
days. Researcher would examine the improvement that Nismara
achieve in the end of each method.
To see how strong the vocabulary of each method can be memorize
by her, researcher will examine her a week after two methods have
been completed

VI. Experiment
1. Baselin measurentment
First step is measure the Nismara beginning English skill as baselin
data. This measurenrment is done by asking any English vocabulary
she has known. And the result is she has already know some English
vocabulary which is some name of fruits. Those fruits name
vocabulary are
No. Indonesian English
1. Tomat tomato
2. Alpukat avocado
3. Nanas pineapple
4. Melon melon
5. Pisang banana

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 She gets this fruits vocabulary from english children song teach by
her kindergarten teacher. It is the only children English song taught in
her kinderganrten, so baselin data of her english vocabulary is that all.
The lirik of the song is shown below:
Banana banana itu pisang
Tomato tomato itu tomat
Alvocado alpukat
Pineapple itu nanas
Kalau melon ya tetap melon.
2. First treatment fase
In first day of the first treatmen fase Nismara was taught a song about
body part, while singing she will be asked to touch the part of the body
which mentioned in the song in exactly the same time the word is
singed. Lyric of the song is below :
Head shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes
Head shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes
And eyes and ears and mouth and nose
Head shoulders knees and toes
Knees and toes.
This song was given to her to be heard several time until she memorize
it well. In next day another song was taught to her. The song is about
animals name in English. Liric of the song is below:
Ikan- fish
Semut ant
Lebah bee
Kupu kupu butterfly
Buaya crocodile
Similar with the day before, in the second day of the first
treatment, the second song was given several time until she memorize
it well. In this day Nismara also asked to sing the first song.
In the third day another song was given to Nismara again. The song
is about number from one to ten. The lyric of the song is:
One two three four
Five six seven eight
Nine ten
In the end of sesion of the day researcher examin how many word
Nismara could memorize. The result was she could remember all of
the words given even if she have to jump to the song to memorize
several words

3. Second Treatment fase

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 In first day of second treatmen, Nismara was given 5 English name of
animals. Those animals was:
1) fly
2) rabbit
3) giraffe
4) mosquito
5) chicken
Those words was given simply just by telling her lalat bahasa
inggrisnya fly and so on. These words was given several time in the
day to make her memorize them well.
In second day 8 other English words was given to Nismara. Those
words are English name of body parts which are:
1) Finger 5) Tongue
2) Hair 6) Neck
3) Stomach 7) Back
4) Hand 8) Cheek

similar with the first day, those word was also given to her simply
just by telling her jari bahasa inggrisnya finger and so on. Those
words was also given several time to make her memorize them.
In third day researcher just repeat words that have been given in
two previous days, in the end of the sesion researcher examine who
many word Nismara succeed to memorize. The result is she can
remember more than half of the words given which are
1) Chicken 5) finger
2) Rabbit 6) hand
3) Fly 7) tonge
4) Giraffe 8) hair
9) back

4. Third treatmen fase

In third treatmen face researcher done nothing to subject which is
Nismara during a week. Reseacher just observe what she done during
that week.
In the end of the week researcher done an examination to see
whether she still remember words which have been taught in first
treatment which taught by sing a song, eventhough in several words
she have to jump to the song first to recall the words
In other side she just memorize only one word from second
treatment which have been given to her simply by told her the words.
The word is chicken.

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VII. Analysis
first experiment face shows that the result of treatment is very
satisfying. Nismara could recall all the word given to her by using a song
eventhough she often go back to the song to recall them. It is a prove that
song is an effective media in increasing the retention of memory of
vocabulary. She probably forgot the vocabulary for a while when the word
is being asked but have stong memory fo the song and know how to use it
to recall the vocabulary she need.
Researcher also note that Nismara often sing the song alone while
she playing. It make the memoty of the song grow stronger do to the
repetition in singing the song she done unconciously. It also show that
song is relaxing media when she sang the song with joyful unconciously.
When she relax the anxiety in acquiring vocabulary is reduce create the
condusif environtment to increse her capability in acquiring foreign
language.
While sang the songs Nismara also often asked alot of new word
spontaneously. For example after sang the song about animals name, she
then asked the English name for other animals from animals which
mentioned inside the song. But ussualy she forget it right after she asked it.
It is prove that song is increse her enthusiasm in grabbing vocabularies
although her retention of memorizing vocabulary without song is a lot
lower than those given by song.
From the fact that she can recall all the word given through song, it
can be said that the effectiveness of using song to increase vocabulary and
the retention of the memoy is almost 100%. almost because she often
need to ga back to the song to make a recall. This claim strengten by the
result of third treatment face where she after a no stimulus treatment
period she still able to recall all the word given through song.
In the other side, second experiment fase result shows that just few
word she can recall from words given to her simply by tell her the words.
In the end of second treatment fase she can only remeber 9 from13 words.
In percentage she only able to recall about 68% from total amount of
words.
If using song Nismara could recall 100% and 68% if not using
musik, it can be said that using music could increase the fresh memory up
to 32%. But in longer term memory Nismara could recall 100% of word
given through song and only less than 8% word given without song. It
means song can increase retention of memory of vocabulary up to more
than 90%.

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VIII. Conclusion
From data of experiment and analysis above can be concluded that
using song as media is very effective to increase the vocabulary of foreign
language acquisition. It effective even more to increase retention of
memory of vocabulary in longer period than give the vocabulary by just
simply by telling the words.
Other advantage of using song is it also increasing children
enthusiasm to know more about the foreign language because this media is
relaxing and fun. So the vocabulary is really acquired not formaly learned.

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 REFFERENCE

Creswell, John W.2010. Research Design pendekatan kualitatif, kuantitatif,

dan mixed. Yogyakrta: Pustaka Pelajar
Sunanto, Juang. Takeuchi, Koji. Nakata, Hideo. 2005. Pengantar Penelitian
dengan Subjent Tunggal. University of Tsukuba.
Lemetyinen, H. 2012. Language Acquisition. Retrieve from
www.simplypsychology.org?language.html.
Krashen, Stephen D. Principal and Practice in Second Language
Acquisition. Prentice- Hall International, 1997).
http://www.ascd.org browsed in January 20, 2017.
Fernandez, Eva M. 2011. Fundamental Psycholinguistic. United Kingdom:
John Willey & son Ltd

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