WRITING DESCRIPTIVE PARAGRAPH WHILE LEARNING NEW VOCABULARIES



Taking note

Academic vocabulary as Nation (2006) said is the learners’ academic purpose of English in Senior High School. To determine the level of vocabulary learners need to learn about the vocabulary level test. The result of the test is interpreted between the high frequency words and the low frequency words. The frequency word is one to plan a vocabulary program of teaching. The 2000 or 2570 high frequency words deserve classroom time because this classroom time can involve direct teaching of these words, doing activities designed to teach learning, and practice using the words. Low frequency words however, do not deserve classroom time because there are many learners who need to begin learning low frequency words. In this case, teacher should start teaching with the four useful strategies dealing with the words, which is the strategy of guessing words from context clues, deliberate learning using words cards, helping memory by using word part analysis, and dictionary used. 

Investigating

Nation in language education also said that vocabulary could be learned through listening, reading, speaking, and writing. In learning through listening or reading, the learners should be focused on understanding what they are listening to or reading. They should already know at least 95% of words and phrases in the input, so there are small numbers of unfamiliar language features that can be understood through the context clues. Another source of vocabulary learning through meaning focused input is through conversational interaction in vocabulary learning through speaking. Vocabulary learning in extensive reading program is suitable for the learners who can read already knowing about 98% of the running words in the text. Vocabulary learning can be done in class time but, sometimes it is done largely out of class when the learners have a few minutes of free time such as when travelling on the subway, waiting for a bus, or during TV commercials. Communication through the internet is a kind to increase the opportunity for learning vocabulary through writing. Vocabulary testing is used to monitor and encourage the progress of learning.

Describing the plant

In applying of teaching to the learners at SMAN7 Malang, I have done some teaching activities. One of them is writing activities. Through the writing activities, I ask the students of X IS3 class the year of 2013-2014 to write descriptive paragraph to describe the Indonesian local fruit trees, which are growing around the schoolyard. The class is divided into 7 groups of 5. The groups are asked to spread out around the schoolyard to find one local fruit tree. They are not allowed to describe the same object.

Mangoes

Therefore, they should make some negotiation if they have the same choice. When they feel sure that they do not have the same object, they may start doing their project. Every member should make some observation of their own based on the part that their captains of the groups give. The captains have a task to control their members’ work. The activities will be done well based on the captain’s attention. Every member should have the note to write the data dealing with the local fruit trees they have chosen during the observation. For example, when they find the tree, they should make some note such as the condition of the tree, leaf, branch, root, fruit, etc. The kind of fruit trees they choose are: Longman, Mango, Guava, Jack Fruit, Passion fruit, and Soursop. They should find the data in details within the time given before they change to another member of their own group. Thus, the students turn back to class to make a discussion about the data they have collected. While writing the paragraph, they make a list of the words they get from the outside of class during the observation. In finding the data, they are suggested to use their dictionaries and if possible, when they do not satisfied with the data they get from the real object – the local fruit trees, they may complete their data by browsing information from the internet. 

Soursop

To control whether they could finish doing their work on time, every group should show what they have done by presenting their paragraph in front of class through the LCD display. Therefore, everyone can read and may give some comment or some correction and criticism to build the good paragraph. The groups should submit the paragraph and display the amount or the list of the vocabularies they get during the observation from the object or browsing words from the internet. From the displaying new words, all the students can learn and use them in other opportunities or in conversational interaction among others in or out of class. By learning the new vocabularies from each of the groups and used them in their daily life is a mean of enrich the vocabularies.

Passion fruits