Undergradute Thesis "THE INFLUENCE OF INQUIRY TECHNIQUE AND STUDENTS’ LEARNING MOTIVATION "

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Problem Background

Language is the important thing in communication. We use language to interact with the other people, to express something, to give information etc, so language has important role in human life because it will be difficult for use to communicate if we do not understand what language is. And compulsory for the people.

 Each community has different based on their country or area where they live. One of international language which is used by all the people in all around the world is English. Right now we live in globalization era, so mastery English is really important. That’s why the student in Indonesia especially must learn English as their second language. In our county English has been taught from elementary until university. But English also given by some of pre-level such as kindergarten, play group etc. because they consider where introduce English for children very important. Hopefully after learn language they will be able to apply and use the language to communicate with the other because we cannot stay alone in this world.

In learning language there are some aspects of language that must be learn and mastered by the learner. Some of the aspects are speaking, listening, reading, and writing. To make our English better we should master the vocabulary, structure, pronunciation etc. but there are some problems which are found in teaching and learning English. Usually it caused by the technique that used by the teachers, an appropriate method, limited media and tools that use in teaching and learning process.

One of the most important things in learning English is vocabulary mastery. So the teacher should be able to help the student to remember the word, to understand the meaning of the word before they pronounce it. Trict (1981:22) says that the student understand their meaning (vocabulary) and can respond appropriately to them when they hear or see them used. This idea also supported by Richard and Rodgers (1986:99) States that learning is facilitating if language learners discover or create rather than remember and repeated what is to be learned. Hence, stevick (1980:47) added that the work (teaching vocabulary) requires language learners to relate the linguistic sign (vocabularies) to truth that they perceive with the sense.

From the statement above, we can conclude that an effective way in increasing students’ vocabulary is by using technique which makes the student to easy find and create the meaning of the word by using their own language. This idea supported by Setiyadi in Rismala Dewi (2006:2) a state that is why this method always considers physical objects in language learning. Rod and Word charts are meant to present the truth in front of the language learners so that they can see them and touch them.

According to the explanation above, in teaching vocabulary the teacher must have some methods and techniques to improve the students’ vocabulary mastery and to make teaching and learning process success. One of the techniques which are use in teaching is inquiry technique. It is about technique which is used to make the students active in the class.  In inquiry technique the materials are shown by the teacher in front of the class. So the student have chance to think, discover and find the meaning, then give their respond appropriately about what they see, hear, touch, taste and many more.

Hence the vocabulary learns word stay in their mind and automatically the student will be able to use the vocabulary and practice it by having conversation with the other students. Consequently in this research the writer proposed inquiry as which can make the student understand the meaning appropriately. And the researcher also wants to know whether inquiry technique can improve students’ vocabulary mastery or not.

Theoretically, motivation is all of inner power reinforcing any person to do something. So, the researcher assumed that reading comprehension will not be effective if the students are not strongly motivated. That fact has led the researcher focus the research on the influence of inquiry technique and students’ learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery. By knowing the influence of inquiry technique towards students’ vocabulary mastery, we can know the contribution of motivation towards students’ vocabulary mastery.

Based on resurvey in the field, the researcher conclude the problem that appeared in English learning at SMP Negeri 7 Metro students get difficulties and has less motivation in vocabulary. The students make mistakes in answer the question about text. The students also found difficulty in making good sentences, the mistake was not only grammar but also in choosing suitable vocabulary that had been thought

Table 1.1 the result of pre-survey data the students’ achievement of the second class in 2010/2011.

Score interval	Score frequency	Level of ability
80-100 75-80 65-74 55-64 10-54	3 3 3 6 15	Excellent Very good Good Enough Bad

Source: the data from SMP Negeri 7 Metro

By seeing the explanation above the same problems that writer found at SMP Negeri 7 metro. When he did preliminary research that students have limited vocabulary, difficulties in remembering new vocabulary difficulties to pronounce some words. From this case, the students can remember some vocabulary that in their daily life, they can tell about their experience and the last they can conversed with another using simple language and as variation technique to make interesting in teaching English.

In this resects the researcher  interest to do the research on the influence of inquiry technique and students learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery.

1.2  Problem Identification

Based on the bag round above, the writer would like to identify problem as follow:

1.      The students’ knowledge about inquiry technique is still low.

2.      The students’ vocabulary mastery is still low.

3.      The students’ knowledge about vocabulary is still low.

4.      Low motivation in vocabulary the students seldom build their confidence in vocabulary.

5.      There is no research on influence of inquiry technique and students learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery.

1.3  Problem Limitation

From the identification above the research would like to focus the problem are:

1.      The students’ vocabulary achievement is still low.

2.      There is no research on influence of inquiry technique and students learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery.

Related the limitation of the problem, the research limited the problem only on to “The influence of inquiry technique and students’ learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery at eighth grade of SMP Negeri 7 Metro Academic Year 2011/2012”.

1.4 Problem Formulation

By considering the identification of problem and the limitation of problem above the writer formulate the problem as follow:

1.     How far of the students achievement about vocabulary?

2.     How the Influence of inquiry technique and students learning motivation towards their vocabulary mastery?

3.     Is there a significant influence the students learning motivation and their vocabulary?

1.5  Research Objective

1.5.1 To know whether inquiry technique and students learning motivation can improve students vocabulary mastery at eighth class of SMP N 7 Metro.

1.6  Research Benefit

The benefit of this research is:

1.      For the English teacher

This research is useful as thinking contribution that can enrich the information and thinking framework is to increase the learning motivation especially in the teaching English. Giving information to the teacher of English about the Influence of inquiry technique and learning motivation towards students’ vocabulary mastery.

2.        For the students

The students will more know the importance of the learning motivation in their learning process, so that they can to increase their knowledge. To know whether the result of this research is relevant or not to the previous theory, and can be consideration in using learning approach before doing teaching learning process.

1.5  Research Scope

The research was conducted at SMP N 7 Metro while the subject of the research was the students of the second year because the researcher assumed that the students of the second year still have chance to improve their ability in English. Motivation was considered as an independent variable wills the vocabulary as a dependent variable.

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