A STUDY OF STUDENTS’ DEVELOPMENT TO MASTER VOCABULARY AT SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL IN GRESIK

Vocabulary is one of the important language elements the students should master. Mastering vocabulary is very important because it is the key to the students’ understanding what they hear and read, communicate successfully with other people. Besides, mastering vocabulary plays a vital role in the development of the study English. By mastering vocabulary, they can shape their English and think that English as one of their subjects at school and their careers. The aim of this research is to describe the student’s vocabulary mastery in conversation at the class during teaching learning English process of the first grade senior high school at SMA Semen Gresik and analyze the problem encounter by the students in mastering vocabulary. The data collection techniques include observations and interviews. Data analysis techniques include data reduction, data display, and drawing conclusions. There were three meetings during the observations. This research is qualitative descriptive. The finding of the observation, the researcher found the ways of students at X IPA 1 grade senior high school of SMA Semen Gresik when they acquired their vocabulary mastery. There were five ways that the three students used to acquire their vocabulary mastery. Those are: noted the new vocabulary that they got, memorized new vocabulary that they got, use the new vocabulary in conversation during teaching learning process at the class, practice the new vocabulary in their assignment and using dictionary to know the meaning of unfamiliar words. To discover the problems faced by the students, the researcher conducted interviews. From the result of the interview, showed that, the students found difficulty words that they didn’t know the meaning, when the teacher didn’t explain clearly before and some difficulty in pronouncing the unfamiliar words that they never hear before. The conclusion was five ways the student’s to acquire their vocabulary mastery during teaching learning English process. Commonly problems that faced by the students are the students found difficulty words that they didn’t know the meaning, when the teacher didn’t explain clearly before and some difficulty in pronouncing the unfamiliar words that they never hear before. On the basis of the result of the study, it is suggested that the students should try to use their new vocabulary to make an interaction or communication with the others. So their vocabulary skill will be develop with practice it every day in their English language skill will be better too. For the teacher, she must explain clearly before she gave the students assignment. Because the students have difficulty to do the assignment if the teacher didn’t explain yet