Improving English Vocabulary for Second Graders Using Pictures at Sekolah Dasar Pangudi Luhur Jakarta, Indonesia

There have been a lot of previous studies and related theories confirming the effectiveness of picture in teaching English vocabulary. To overcome students’ vocabulary problem, including spelling, pronunciation, grammatical use, and meaning, at Sekolah Dasar Pangudi Luhur Jakarta, Indonesia, an elementary school program, the present study was carried out. It was conducted in two cycles to twenty-five participants. Instruments used were tests, questionnaires, and observation. Results showed that an initial vocabulary mastery was 61.32 points, and increased to 81.08 in the final cycle of the study. In the same way, the questionnaire results in the second cycle revealed that although the students still found English learning (72.00) and memorizing vocabulary (64%) difficult, their interest in learning it increased (60%). Finally, the observation results of the second cycle also showed the improvement of both students’ and teacher’s teaching and learning atmosphere as well as interest. It was recorded that the teacher’s teaching outperformed, reaching (90%). It is 20% better than the previous results. To sum up, the picture used in teaching the young English learners at Sekolah Dasar Pangudi Luhur Jakarta, Indonesia was found effective to improve their vocabulary mastery. However, a further study and learning policy are worthy to assure the application of the pictorial aids facilitating the attractive and motivating learning atmosphere in the future