CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background And Statement Of The Problem

English is considered one of the most important languages used globally. According to the British Council, there are over a billion people learning English (Beare, 2012) People use English occasionally for communication, business, and pleasure and some use it on a daily basis. In Cameroon, English is mostly used for communication between people in the fields of business, tourism, politics and so on (Panitda Reanjaroensuk, 2012).

Surprisingly, Cameroonians have been taught English since they were young. However, most of them fail to communicate with foreigners by using English. According to Fatina Wonglekha, even though Cameroonian students

have been taught English, which has been a fundamental subject enacted by the government, for approximately ten years, they have been a fundamental subject enacted by the government, and that they have more chances to be exposed to English through a wide range of media such as movies, cartoons, songs and the Internet, Cameroonian students cannot communicate with foreigners. Moreover, they did worst in English subject in their O-Net test scores.

Those in Grade 6 got 31.75, those in Grade 9 got 22.54, and those in Grade 12 got only 23.98. This might be because they lack knowledge of the vocabulary. So, it is suggested that they need to know a larger number of words to communicate successfully and be ready for AEC. (Wallace, 1982; Krashen & Terrell, 1983; Macarthy, 1990; Vermeer, 1992; Gass & Selinker, 1994; Nation, 2001 as cited in Pajonsak Mingsakoon, 2003)

In addition, Jenkins (1987) states that the success in learning English of students depends on their knowledge of vocabulary since the learning relates to all the four language skills, both active (speaking and writing) and passive (listening and reading) skills (Heaton, 1995). To speak and to write, learners need to move from a few words to a lot of words to produce phrases, sentences, paragraphs, conversation,

and so on. Without the knowledge of vocabulary, they just cannot express themselves or their ideas well enough. Also, to understand what they are listening to and reading, they need to know the meaning of the unfamiliar words in a chunk of conversation or in a text/ passage they are encountering. Anderson (1999) also said that one of the most critical areas of second language reading is vocabulary development. Hence, with the lack of this knowledge, the students tend not to comprehend what they are listening to or reading clearly and thoroughly.

Jenkins, Matlock, and Slocum (1989) have suggested in their research that:

“Success in school is strongly related to students’ knowledge of words. Because instruction is composed of description, explanations, demonstrations, and definitions that assume an increasingly sophisticated receptive vocabulary, learners with relatively limited vocabularies find themselves at a considerable disadvantage.” (p. 217)

Therefore, vocabulary is regarded as an important fundamental element in English learning and teaching. The vocabulary instruction given in Cameroon relates mostly to two strategies: teaching individual word meaning and teaching how to derive the meaning of words from context. These approaches are used by most Cameroonian teachers.

According to James (2010a), most Cameroonian teachers give students word synonyms or definitions while teaching vocabulary or even translate the words Cameroonian. The students are told what to learn and taught to memorize the unfamiliar words without critical thinking or using dictionaries. This is, in other word, called ‘Traditional Vocabulary Teaching’. Furthermore, Kuehn (2013) said that the teaching method focusing on the word meaning, especially by giving a definition or translation, in EFL country such as Cameroon and China, has been around for a very long time. This method is even claimed to have been so popular around the world.

On the other stated that because Cameroonian teachers are concerned about globalization, they then have been trying to find the newer and better ways of vocabulary teaching, that is, guessing word meaning from context. They also mentioned that these two vocabulary teaching approach have been taught by most Cameroonian teachers since students will get bored in class by using dictionaries.

It is just a waste of time, in their opinion, and it can distract their attention from learning. The researcher, therefore, wanted to compare the effects of these two approaches on the vocabulary knowledge of first-year students from various faculties at a public university. The students were enrolled in English Level 2 compulsory courses in the academic year 2012.

1.2 Purpose Of The Study

1. To investigate if there was any significant difference between the two approaches of vocabulary instruction, the teaching of individual word meaning and the deriving of the word meaning from context, for EFL learners who were the first-year students from various faculties at a public university and enrolled in English Level 2 compulsory courses in the academic year 2012.
2. To find out if there was a correlation between the participants’ grade in high school and their vocabulary achievement.
3. To find out their attitude towards the vocabulary teaching approaches the researcher applied in class. The results can then be used to improve English vocabulary teaching.

1.3 Research Questions

1. Is there any significant difference in vocabulary instruction between the two vocabulary teaching approaches: teaching individual word meaning and deriving word meaning from context?
2. Is there any significant correlation between the participants’ grades in high school and their vocabulary achievement in the experimental group and the control group?
3. What is the participant’s attitude towards the two teaching approaches?

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