CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE AND

HYPOTHESIS

A. Previous Research
The researcher has some relevant previous researches that support
this research. The research is inspired from final project of:

1. Domino Card as a Medium to Teach Vocabulary (An

Experimental Research at The Fifth Grade Students of SDN 1
Purwodadi Grobogan in the Academic Year of 2010/2011), by
Azizah Deviana Rizqi Amalia (073411047), she stated that using
Domino card as teaching media in teaching vocabulary was
effective.1 It could be seen from the result of test score. It showed
that the experimental class which was given treatment by using
domino card as a medium to tech vocabulary got higher mean
score that was 83, 8571 compared to the control class who were
not given the same treatment. The control class got 79, 0667. The
difference between this research and researcher’s research is the
medium in teaching vocabulary. This research is using Domino
card as a medium in teaching vocabulary, but the researcher is
using Touch and Go game. The similarity of this research with the

1
Azizah Deviana Rizqi Amalia (073411047), “Domino Card as A
Medium to Teach Vocabulary (An Experimental Research at The Fifth Grade
Students of SDN 1 Purwodadi Grobogan in The Academic Year of
2010/2011)”, (Semarang: Tarbiyah Faculty of IAIN Walisongo, 2011).

7
 researcher’s research is the research method (an experimental
research).
2. The Effectiveness of Picture-Board game As A Vocabulary
Teaching Technique To Improve Students Vocabulary
Achievement ( An Experimental Study at the Grade 5 of MI
Negeri Kalibalik Banyuputih Batang in the Academic Year of
2009/2010), by Hani’atul Mamlu’ah, she stated that using Picture-
Board game technique can improve the students’ vocabulary
achievement.2 This can be seen from the result of test score. It
shows that the experimental class which is given treatment by
using picture-board game as a technique in teaching vocabulary
gets higher mean score that is 82,9 compared to the control class
who are not given the same treatment. This class gets 77,1. The
similarities of this research with the researcher’s research are the
teaching technique (game) and research method (experimental
research). But the difference is the kind of game. If this research is
using picture-board game, the researcher’s research is using Touch
and Go game.
Because of those successful researches, the researcher try to
do another research related to this. The researcher did an
experimental reserach to teach vocabulary using Touch and Go

2
Hani’atul Mamlu’ah,” The Effectiveness of Picture-Board Game as
A Vocabulary Teaching Technique to Improve Students’ Vocabulary
Achievement (An Experimental Study at the Grade 5 of MI Negeri Kalibalik
Banyuputih Batang in the Academic Year of 2009/2010)”, (Semarang:
Tarbiyah Faculty of IAIN Walisongo, 2010).

8
 Game. The researcher conducted the research with seventh grade
students of SMP Askhabul Kahfi Semarang. Therefore the
differences between the above mentioned the researches and the
researcher’s research are teaching technique, subject matter,
setting and participants.

B. Theoritical Framework
1. Teaching Vocabulary
a. Definition of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is one of the language components which
should be mastered by English learners. Vocabulary plays
a significant role in supporting the mastery of language
skills. In order to communicate well in language, students
should acquire a wide range of vocabulary.
Caroline T. Linse stated that vocabulary is the
collection of words that an individual knows.3Vocabulary
also means the list of words with their meanings
especially in a book for learning a foreign language.4
Richards defines vocabulary as one of the most obvious

3
Caroline T.Linse, Practical English Language Teaching: Young
Learners, (America: Mc. Graw Hill, 2006), p.121
4
A.S., Hornby, Oxford Learner’s Pocket Dictionary, (New York:
Oxford University Press,1995). 3rd Ed. P.482

9
 components of language and one of the first applied
linguists turned their attention to.5
In addition, Hornby says, “Vocabulary is a total
number of words which (with roles for combining them)
make up a language”. This definition tells us not only the
number of words one knows but also the rules for
combining the words to make up a language.6 It means
that vocabulary covers knowing the meaning of words
and their uses in context.
From the definition above, the researcher concluded
that vocabulary is the total number of words with their
meanings that individual knows as the most important
components in learning language. Without vocabulary,
nothing can be conveyed because we can say almost
anything with words.
b. Kinds of Vocabulary
Scott Thornburry stated that there are two kinds of
vocabulary, they are:
a) Receptive Vocabulary
Receptive vocabulary refers to the words
which learners know when they listen and read or the

5
Jack.C.Richards, Curriculum Development In Language Teaching,
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998). P.4
6
A.S. Hornby, Oxford Advanced Learners’ Dictionary of Current
English, (NY: Oxford University Press,1987), 25 th Ed., p.959

10
 words they know when learners receive from another.
Rreceptive vocabulary can be called as passive
vocabulary. Some ways to increase the receptive
vocabulary ability; the first is making some notes of
words and finding out the synonyms and antonyms.
Another way is looking in the dictionary
b) Productive Vocabulary
Produtive vocabulary refers to the words
which learners use when they speak or write, and it is
called as active vocabulary. To increase this active
vocabulary ability, the learners should try much their
speaking and writing.7
In addition, according to Marianne Celce and
Murcia Elite Olshtain, there are two kinds of
vocabulary, namely content words and function
words. The content words are those vocabulary items
that belong to open word classes (words classes that
readily accept new words and discard old ones). The
content words can be divided into three general
classes:
a) Words that refers to a person, a place, or a
thing that we might call them nouns,

7
Scott Thornburry, How to Teach Vocabulary,(London:
Longman,2002), p.15

11
 b) Words that express an action, an event or a
state are called verbs,
c) Words are used to describe the qualities of
thing or actions are called adjectives and
adverbs.

The function words are those vocabulary items

that belong to closed words classes (i.e. word classes that
do not readily admit new items or lose old ones:
pronouns, auxiliary verbs, preposition, determiners and
adverbs).8

c. Principle of Teaching Vocabulary

Douglas Brown writes that teaching is guiding and
facilitating learning, enabling the learner to learn, setting
the condition for learning.9 The teacher task is to teach
and guide the students to learn and provide anything to
enable them to study. Besides that, the teacher is also the
controller of the class. It means that a teacher is obliged to
plan and to launch her strategies to obtain successful
result. The teacher should look for a new way by

8
Marianne Celce and Murcia Elite Olshtain, Discourse and Context
in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press), p.76
9
Douglas Brown, Audio Visual Instruction, (New York: Mc. Graw
Hill Book Company,1997), p.7

12
 considering many factors influencing the teaching, such
as the students, the facilities, and so on.10
In addition, according to Wallace, there are some
principles in teaching vocabulary, they are:
1) Aims
The teachers should understand clearly what
the aims of teaching vocabulary are, he or she expects
the learners to master some difficult words of
vocabulary that are needed in his or her lesson.
2) Quantity
The teachers may have to decide on the
number of vocabulary items to be learnt.
3) Need
It is also possible for the teacher to put the
responsibility of choosing the vocabulary to be taught
to the students according to the students’ need.
4) Frequent Exploration and Repetition
It is impossible for us to remember new
words by only hearing it for once or twice. In learning
vocabulary, there has to be a certain amount of
practice and repetition until there is evidence that

10
Rifatun Nashihah, The Effectiveness of Aladdin Fairy Tale Movie
to Teach Vocabulary (An Experimental Research at 11th Grade of SMA N 1
Pegandon Kendal in the Academic Year of 2010/2011), IAIN Walisongo
Semarang, 2011.

13
 students have already mastered the vocabulary of the
target language.
5) Meaningful Presentation
The learners must have a clear understanding
of the words that are taught i.e the meaning of the
words which are being taught.
6) Situation Presentation
In teaching vocabulary to children, teacher
should focus on a topic, words about things around us
are given in the one topic, words about animals, is
another etc.11
From the principles above, the teacher should
be able to identify who the students are, what their
needs are, and how the teacher should teach in a
simple and interesting way. Good principles of
teaching and learning are useless without good
teacher’s principles of teaching learning and teacher’s
principles. Then, the aim of teaching and learning can
be gained.

11
J.M. Wallace, Teaching Vocabulary, (London: Biddles Ito,
1982),p.27

14
 d. Some Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary
Techniques are way of doing something,
especially one that needs special skills.12 Technique is
any of wide variety of exercises, activities, or tasks used
in the language classroom for realizing lesson
objectives.13
Ruth Gairns and Stuart Redman say, “There
are many techniques of vocabulary teaching. There are:
mime and gesture, visual aids, verbal explanation, and
contextual guesswork”.
1. Visual Technique
a) Mime and Gesture
In this technique, a teacher uses real
object and command. In real object, the teacher
can use something available in the classroom such
as door, blackboard, chalk, clock, and so on. In
using command, a teacher can give command
such as open the window, open your book, etc.
Another example is teaching part of body, a
teacher can give command such as raise your
hand, put your left hand on your head,etc.

12
Oxford Learners’ Pocket Dictionary, (New York: Oxford
University Press,2004), p.443
13
H. Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principle: An Interactive
Approach to Language Pedagogy, 2nd Ed, (San Fransisco: Longman,2001),
p.16

15
 b) Visual Aids
In this technique, a teacher can use
picture, photographs, flashcards, and blackboard.
One of the visual aids is blackboard. It is a writing
the words and their meaning on the blackboard,
but there are undersized result.
Pictures for vocabulary teaching come
from many sources. It can be from the magazine,
newspaper, or the students’ handmade. Pictures
can be use to explain the meaning of vocabulary
items.
2. Verbal Explanation
a) Use of illustrative situations (oral or written)
This technique can be useful when the
words are abstract. In this technique teachers just
explain the word so that teachers should use more
than one situation or context to ensure that
students understand what they explained.
b) Use of synonym and definition
Synonym can be called the words that
have similar meaning with other words. Teachers
often use this technique to low level students; it
would be justifiable at low levels to tell students
that miserable mean very sad. Secondly, it is

16
 commonly used with higher level students and
subsequently qualified, such as Male means man.
c) Contrasts and opposites
In this technique, the teacher asks the
students the opposite of something, for example,
what is the opposite of sweet?, what is the
opposite of clever?, etc.14
d) Scales
It can be useful way to get new
vocabulary if students have learned contrasting or
related gradable items. If students know „hot’ and
„cold’ teachers can ask students a framework for
feeding in „warm’ and „cool’ and later „freezing’
and „boiling’.
e) Examples of the type
The teachers can use illustration to get the
meaning of subordinates, such as furniture,
vegetables, and fruits. It is a common produce to
exemplify them e.g. table, chair, and, bed are all
furniture.
3. Translation
Translation is changing some words or
sentences from second language or other language to

14
Ruth Gaims And Stuard Redman, Working With Words: A Guide
To Teaching And Learning Vocabulary, p.74.

17
 native language with similar meaning. It is one of
traditional method. This technique is usually used by
the teachers when they taught vocabulary or text in
teaching learning process. Translation can be a very
effective way of conveying meaning. It can save
valuable time that might otherwise be spent on a
largely unsuccessful explanation in English, and it can
be a very quick way to dispose of low frequency items
that may worry the students but do not warrant
significant attention.15
According to Saraswathi, in his book entitled
„English language teaching principle and practice’,
technique for teaching vocabulary teachers should
consider the following:
1. At the elementary stage, teachers should use
objects or real things to translate target
language that is being studied into mother
tongue. For example: pictures, slides, and
labels.
2. Using gestures and symbols. It means that
teachers should practice by doing action to
explain words that is being studied like smile,
jump, and walk.

15
Ruth Gaims And Stuard Redman, Working With Words: A Guide
To Teaching And Learning Vocabulary, p.75.

18
3. At a higher level, teachers can use known
vocabulary to teach unknown vocabulary,
such as teachers can ask synonym, antonym,
and hyponym some words to enrich the
students’ vocabulary.
For example:
a) Synonym = handsome,good looking
b) Antonym = smart X stupid
c) Hyponym= dog, cat, donkey, monkey
(animals)
4. Using Words set or words categories.
For example:
a) Pen, pencil, ink, paper (stationery)
b) Breakfast, lunch, dinner, supper (meals)
c) Menu card, waiter, tips, appetizer, dessert,
soup, bill, buffer (words associated with a
restaurant)
5. Teachers can ask the definition and paraphrase
some words to students.
For example: a sonnet is a poem of 14 lines.
6. Teachers can ask students some words based
on the situation.

19
 When you are thirsty, you drink water. When
you are hungry, you eat food.16

From the explanation above, the teachers should have

an interested ways in learning vocabulary. The teachers have
to know what they should do and what they should not do
well, so it can help students acquire more enjoyable strategies.

2. The Effectiveness of Touch and Go Game to Teach

Vocabulary
a. General Concept of Games
Game is a simplified, operational model of a real life
situation that provides students with various participants in a
variety of roles events. A game is an activity with rules, a
goal, and element of fun.17 Games also provide motivation
and sense of play that brain research and teacher experience
indicate can enhance both learning and memory.
Games can also provide a structured setting for the
practice of common social and conversation-starting formulas

16
V Saraswathi, English Language Teaching Principle and Practice,
(Chennai: Orient Longman Private Limited Press, 2004), p. 103.
17
Jill Hadfield, Intermediate Communication Games, (England:
Longman, 1996), p.v

20
 for which there is not sufficient opportunity in the everyday
classroom.18
Lee Deighton says that a game can be defined as
something enjoyable, but serious involving for specified
objectives and observing rules. It means that the teacher as
educator gives a great help until they have opportunities to
express their participation in teaching learning process in the
classroom.19
There are several reasons why we can use games in
the classroom:
1) Games are fun and learners will be interested in playing it.
Through games, learners will be able to explore some new
ways and ideas to learn the material given. Furthermore,
learners can interact with their friends while playing a
game in teaching learning process and it will make them
get closer. So, it will never make students bored to learn
English.
2) The game context makes the foreign language
immediately useful to the children.

18
Helena Anderson, Languages and Children making the Match,
(USA: Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1988)
19
Deighton,L, Games for Language Learning, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1971), p.106

21
 3) Games are welcoming break from the usual routines of
the language class. They can be use as relaxation of
teaching and learning process.
4) Games help students to make and sustain the effort of
learning.
5) Games make classroom atmosphere much more
20
supportive for learning.

Based on those reasons we know that game is good to

be applied in language learning. Game will make students
enjoy teaching learning process and master the material
easily.

Playing games allows students to explore and become

familiar with words and phrases. Among the many specific
benefits of using games to teach English are the following:
1) Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which
the language is useful and meaningful. The learners want
to take part in order to do so much understand what others
are saying or have written, and they must speak or write
in order to express their own point of view or give
information.
2) Games can be found to give practice in all the skills
(reading, writing, listening, and speaking), in all the

20
Redjeki Agoestyowati, Fun English Games & Activities for You,
(Jakarta: PT.Bhuana Ilmu Populer,2010), p.314

22
 stages of the teaching/learning sequence (presentation,
repetition, recombination and free use of language) and
for many types of communication (e.g. encouraging,
criticizing, agreeing, explaining)21
3) Games help the teacher built better class relationship and
encourage class participation.
4) Games provide language practice, review, and
consolidation in the various skills: speaking, writing,
listening, and reading.
5) Through games, children experiment, discover and
interact with others.
6) Games encourage the creative and spontaneous use of
language and promote real communication.
7) Games are enjoyable and challenging but not threatening.
They are a nice break from the normal routine of the
language class.
8) Games promote healthy competition and help students
overcome shyness about using language.
From the definition above, we know that there are
some characteristics of games:
a) It must be enjoyable
b) There must be cooperation and competition activity
among the players

21
Andre Wright,et,al,Games for Language Learning, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press,1994), p.1

23
 c) It must have some objectives to be achieved
d) It must have a set of rules
e) It must reveal a decision making process and variety of
roles and event.

b. Touch and Go Game to Teach Vocabulary

Touch and Go game is a fun way to get children to
read and revise vocabulary.22 It is a fun game to input a group
of words with brain-based technique. The purposes of this
game are to warm-up, teach new words, or review vocabulary.
In teaching vocabulary, Touch and Go game helps the
students to understand relationship between words and
meanings easily. Touch and Go Game not only a fun way for
students to memorize the meaning of words, but they can
memorize the similar and opposite meaning of words easily.
The procedures in playing Touch and Go game are:
1) Divide students into two groups
2) Students make a line
3) Print out the flashcards of your choice (based on the
theme).
4) Stick the flashcards on the whiteboard

22
Papadeli Shopia, http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_
embedded&v=1ZDbsA_L464, accesed on September 11, 2012.

24
 5) Each team moves along by saying the meaning of words.
We also can modify this game by saying the synonym or
antonym of words.
6) The first one who guess correctly moves to back of their
line and the next team member starts. But, when they
reach the other team, they do “rock, paper scissors” to see
who keeps going. If they lose, the go to the back of their
line and the next team member starts.23
7) Team who faster in finishing the game, they are the
winner.

3. Characteristic of Junior High School Students

We need to pay more attention in teaching vocabulary for
Junior High School (secondary school) because the age ranges of
Junior High School students vary among 13-15 years old. They
can be called as teenager. They are in process of changing from
children to adult. They are usually less-motivated and showed
disruptive discipline problems.
According to Harmer, the characteristic of Junior High
School students are:
1) They seem to be less lively and humorous than adult.
2) Identity has to be forced among classmates and friends, peers
approval may be considerably more important for the students

23
Roxy Hutton, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ZDbsA_L464,
accesed on September 11, 2012.

25
 than the attention of teacher, which, for younger children, is
so crucial.
3) They would be much happier if such problem did not exist.
4) They maybe disruptive in class.24

In addition, the teenagers if they are engaged, have a great

capacity to learn, a great potential for creativity and passionate
commitment to things which interested them. So, teacher should
provide opportunities for them to explore and experiment in a
stable and supportive atmosphere, because they learn new
experiences, new rules, and this range of age is one of the most
challenging times in life.

Teenagers are sensitive to how other perceive their

changing physical and emotional selves along with their mental
capabilities. One of the most important concerns of the secondary
school teacher is to keep self-esteem high by:

1) Avoiding embarrassment of students at all cost.

2) Affirming each person’s talents and strengths.
3) Allowing mistakes and errors to be accepted.
4) Encouraging small group work where risks can be taken more
easily by a teen.25

24
Jeremy Harmer, The Practice of English Language Teaching,
(England: Longman, 2001), 3rd Ed., p.39.

26
 Based on statement above, teacher role is needed to motivate
secondary school students in teaching learning process. In this
case, the teacher should have discipline and responsibility if the
teacher will encourage the students to learn English.

C. HYPOTHESES
Hypothesis consists of word “hypo” and “thesis”. Hypo is
under or less or weak. Thesis is theory or proposition that showed
as a proof.26 Hypothesis is a temporary answer of problems in
research until proved from the data which collected.27 Hypothesis
can define a weak thruth statement towards problems on research
and need to prove the truth after collecting data.
The hypothesis of this research is “Touch and Go game is
effective to teach vocabulary to the seventh grade students of
SMP Askhabul Kahfi in the academic year of 2012/2013”.

25
Douglas H. Brown, Teaching by Principles, An Interactive
Approach to Language Pedagogy (New York: Person Education Company,
2001), 2nd Ed., p.92.
26
Sutrisno Hadi, Statistik, Vol.2, (Yogyakarta: Andi,2004),p.210
27
Suharsimi Arikunto, Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan
Praktek, (Jakarta:Rineka Cipta,2006), 6th Ed, p.64

27