A Study on the Learning Vocabulary Difficulties Encountered and Strategies Used by High Achievers of the Seventh Grade Students of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang

Abstract

Vocabulary is the total number of the words that has an important role in the success of foreign language learners. Adequate vocabulary will help students in mastering four skills in English which cover listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Without vocabulary, the students will have difficulty to communicate well in a foreign language. Yet, some difficulties faced by the students in learning vocabulary such as the pronunciation of the words, the use of words appropriately, understanding the meaning of the words, and the lack of motivation in learning English. To master the vocabulary, the students might apply the appropriate strategy in order to help them to solve the difficulties they faced during learning vocabulary. Therefore, the researcher was interested in conducting the research dealing with the students' difficulties and the strategies used by the students in learning vocabulary. The research design of this study was descriptive qualitative that focuses on the difficulties encountered and the strategy used by high achieving students of seventh grade in learning vocabulary. The purpose of this study was to investigate the students' difficulties and the strategy they used in learning vocabulary. The population of this study was the high achievers in English subject at seventh-grade students at SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang. The instrument used in this research was a questionnaire. There are 9 questions about the students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary and 10 questions about the strategy they used to overcome their difficulties in learning vocabulary. The source of the questionnaire was taken from the previous study and SILL (Strategy Inventory for Language Learners). The data were analyzed using table percentage. The finding of the study showed that the majority of the students had difficulties related to the pronunciation of the words, the use of words appropriately, understanding the meaning of the word, and the lack of motivation in learning English. In order to solve their difficulties in learning vocabulary, the researcher found some strategies used by the students, they are memorization strategy, note-taking strategy, learning media strategy, and guessing strategy. In conclusion, the high achieving students in the seventh grade of SMP Wahid Hasyim Malang had their own difficulties in learning vocabulary. However, the majority of the students had the same difficulties, they are the pronunciation of the words, the use of words appropriately, understanding the meaning of the words, and the lack of motivation in learning English. The students also had their own strategies to overcome their difficulties in learning vocabulary, they are memorization strategy, note-taking strategy, learning media strategy, and the guessing strategy. The researcher expected that the result of this study can help the teachers to handle the students’ difficulties in learning vocabulary. The students can also apply the various strategies found in this research to help them learning vocabulary. This research finding is also expected to be additional information for the future researchers who are interested to conduct the study in similar topic.