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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

This part deals with background, problem statements, objective, significance and scope of the research.

A. Background

It is very important to master English as an international language. To gain a good result of English learning, people should take a good and effective ways because learning English as a foreign language is a complex task. Learning English as a foreign language is a difficult thing to do for most of the Indonesian students. It also takes a lot of time since English as a foreign language for them. The same condition also happens to very young learners who are the beginners in learning English. It also means that the teacher needs more effort to teach them English. As young learners who enjoy having fun, and enjoy things with happy feeling, the students need more relaxing learning atmosphere, so they could join the English classes comfortably, and with high enthusiasm. It becomes the teachers tasks to make the situation comes true. The teacher needs some things to be involved in the English classes. The researcher hopes that the students of the elementary are the students who learn a new language during the critical period, so they should acquire it easier and better than those who are not exposed that language during the childhood. In 1

addition, Rudolph and Cohen (1984:16) state that early childhood years are very important for learning in the basic. In teaching vocabulary to the elementary students, the teacher should be more creative and able to keep the students away from getting bored. In order to keep the students away from getting bored in learning vocabulary, the teacher should use an appropriate instructional media. This media should gain the students interest in learning new vocabulary. Media such as cartoon, VCD, tape recorder, overhead projector, radio, television, computer, and etc. play important role in teaching vocabulary. They are very useful for the teacher to achieve the instructional goals and the objectives of learning, besides as a tool to command students in teaching learning process. Webster (1972:664) states that teaching aids are many varieties of devices and materials, which rely on the sense of sight to inform. Without technique and teaching aids which are appropriate to the students level, the students may get bored and not interested in following the lesson and the result will not be satisfactory. In this study the researcher wants to examine a technique which is hoped can be a good method for teaching vocabulary to elementary students. Here, the researcher tried to present multimedia English and Me VCD as a media in teaching English to elementary students. Teaching English using English and Me VCD can be considered as one of the appropriate media. The use of English and Me VCD as media can be a choice for the teacher in teaching vocabulary in which the students are given a chance to study vocabulary in different way which is hoped that they will be motivated in learning vocabulary.

For the reasons above, the researcher tried to use Multimedia English and Me VCD as media for teaching vocabulary to the elementary students. The researcher carried out a research under the title: The Effectiveness of Using Multimedia English and Me VCD as Media for Teaching Vocabulary to Elementary students.

B. Problem Statement

The study is conducted to address the following problem: 1. Does the use of Multimedia English and Me VCD as media significantly improve the students vocabulary mastery? 2. Are the students interested in the use of Multimedia English and Me VCD in teaching of vocabulary?

C. Objective of the Research

The objectives of the research are: 1. To find out whether or not the use of Multimedia English and Me VCD significantly improve the students vocabulary mastery. 2. To find out whether or not the students are interested in the use of Multimedia English and Me VCD.

D. Significance of the Research

On basis of the objectives above, the significance of the research can be stated as follows: 1. For the students, teaching vocabulary using Multimedia English and Me VCD can give the students an experience in learning vocabulary and affect their interests toward English lesson. 2. For the teacher, it can give contributions in enriching the teachers strategy in teaching vocabulary to the students. 3. Furthermore, the researcher hopes that the result of the research will be valuable and useful for English teachers in encircling their technique in teaching vocabulary to elementary students.

E. Scope of the Research

The scope of the research was limited on the effectiveness of Multimedia English and Me VCD in teaching English vocabulary at SDN IKIP Makassar. The research was under applied linguistic. It means that this research was focus on two main cases; the first is the use of English and Me VCD in teaching vocabulary to elementary students. The researcher used three discs of English and Me VCD in teaching students. Every disc has different themes namely: Feeling, Occupation, and Vehicle. And also every disc consists of three parts. There are English and Gym, English and Story, English and Music. The second is about the effectiveness of

English and Me VCD in teaching vocabulary to elementary. The second is the students interest in learning English through Multimedia English and Me VCD.