USING POP-UP PICTURES THROUGH EEC STRATEGY TO IMPROVE VOCABULARY MASTERY OF THE FIRST GRADERS IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

ABSTRACT Faradisha, Inez. 2013. Using Pop-Up Pictures through EEC Strategy to Improve Vocabulary Mastery of the First Graders in Elementary School. Sarjana’s Thesis. English Department, Faculty of Letters, State University of Malang. Advisor: Dr. Enny Irawati, M.Pd. Key words: vocabulary mastery, popup pictures, EEC strategy The aim of this study is to improve students' vocabulary mastery in the first grade of SDN Mulyoarjo 04 Lawang. Students had difficulty in remembering new vocabulary. Based on the preliminary analysis, there were only 2 of 18 students whose score was above minimum passing standard.The minimum passing standard which was decided by the school was 60. Besides, in the application of teaching and learning activities, the teacher rarely used media to teach new vocabulary, so it influenced students’ enthusiastics in learning vocabulary. To solve these problems, the use of pop-up pictures media was applied in learning vocabulary through Exploration, Elaboration, and Confirmation (EEC) strategy. This is a collaborative Classroom Action Research (CAR). It was done collaboratetively with the English teacher. The subjects were 18 students of the first grade of SDN Mulyoarjo 04 Lawang-Malang. This research was implemented in one cycle and consisted of four stages: planning the action, implementating the plan, observing the action, and reflecting the action. In the implementation, this study consisted of three meetings. The first meeting was for the explanation of new vocabulary, the second meeting was for reviewing vocabulary using games, and the final meeting was used for vocabulary test. The steps of implementing popup pictures as instructional media through EEC strategy are as follows; in the exploration stage, the students were asked to define the topic and give examples of words related to the topic. For the elaboration stage, the teacher opened the pictures one by one and followed by the students. Any students who knew the meaning of the pictures were asked to answer. After that, the teacher wrote the words in bahasa Indonesia and English on the board. The students followed the teacher to pronounce the correct words. After that, the students who could spell the word were asked to spell it loudly. The students were drilled to spell and read aloud those words. The students were gave some exercises in form of writing the correct spelling, jumbled words, and guessing the clues. Finally, in the collaboration stage, the teacher and the students discussed answer of the exercises and sumarized what they had learnt. The criteria of success were determined on the data of students’ score and participation. At least there was 75% students whose score was equal or higher than the minimum passing standard. Then, at least there was 50% students participate actively in the learning activities in the classroom. The instruments used were interview guides, observation sheets, field notes, vocabulary test, and questionnaires. The findings showed that all the students passed the minimum passing standard. In addition, there were 12 out of 18 students participated actively in the learning activities. Students' response toward the use of popup pictures media was collected from questionnaires in which it showed more than 70% students agreed and were enthusiastic about the use of the media. It can be concluded that the use of pop-up pictures during the teaching and learning activities are effective to improve vocabulary mastery in the first graders of SDN Mulyoarjo 04 Lawang-Malang. For English language teachers, it was suggested to apply the pop-up pictures as instructional media to increase students’ vocabulary mastery. Besides, implementing other instructional media were advisable to avoid students’ boredom and attract students’ attention to learn English, especially vocabulary. For other researchers who are interested in using this medium, it is advisable to apply it into other materials in different grades of educational levels.