Name : Fanny Pradhita N

St. Num : 2016002089

Introduction

Today, English becomes the most popular language in the world. Many countries also use
this language as their first or second language. English has been regarded as the first foreign
language in Indonesia. Its function is to foster country and nation's development, to build
relationships with other countries, and to run foreign policy including as a language used for
broader communication in international forums. In relation to those aspects, Indonesia has
implemented EFL (English as foreign language) teaching at almost the school level, starting
from elementary school until high school.
In Junior High School, the students learn about four skills such as reading, speaking,
listening, and writing. And learn about three components such as pronunciation, grammar,
and vocabulary. Vocabulary make the students understand about the meaning of the
language. Thus, vocabulary should be learned in teaching Elementary School. Hatch and
brown (1995) argue “Vocabulary is the foundation to build language, which plays a
fundamental role in communication”. It means that children and adults can express their
thinking and understand basic competence.
According to the previous research from Herlina and Raden Rahma Dewi (2017), they
said that In learning languages, including English, vocabulary is one of the important things
to master in addition to grammar, and pronunciation. Barnhart (2008; p.46) defines
vocabulary the stock of words used by the person, class of people, profession, etc., and
collection or list of words, usually in alphabetical order and defined. In other words,
vocabulary is a set of vocabulary that is used to communicate to all people. Someone will be
easier to understand a language if it understands the meaning of the vocabulary used.
This research will analyze the using of flashcards as the media for teahing English to gain
students interesting in learning vocabulary. In Ernita Daulay (2016) she mentioned that a
feature of flashcards is that they’re confined to a limited (rectangular) space. As it turns out,
this is very helpful in learning. Unlike a single book page which may contain several
paragraphs and dozens upon dozens of sentences, a single flashcard often contains just a few
words sometimes even just one word or one image. And this one word, in that very instant,
becomes our whole universe. It’s daring us to answer or guess what’s behind the card, and in
that moment it’s our entire point of focus. As according to Scrivener (2010; p.28) flashcards
for english language teaching is jargon for pictures (or diagrams, words, etc) that you can
show to students, typically something you can hold up when standing in front of the whole
class. Gardner’s research indicates that teachers should aim to appeal to all the different
learner types at some point during the course. It is particularly important to appeal to visual
learners, as a very high proportion of learners have this type of intelligence. Flash cards can
be bright and colorful and make a real impact on visual learners. Many of the activities
outlined below will also appeal to kinesthetic learners.
Also in Nita Myla & friends, they said that there are many media in teaching vocabulary,
one of them is by using flashcard. Flashcard is one of teaching media that is very appropriate
to young learners. As a media, flashcards are a really handy resource to have and be useful
because they are a great way to present, practice and recycle vocabulary. Flashcard can be a
great way to introduce new vocabulary, so that the learners have a very clear understanding
of the word or concept. Besides that, students are more curious rather that just flipping
through the cards and having students repeat the words, incorporate the cards into activities.
So, they can remember some vocabularies that they have studied before.