Playing SAFMEDS has successfully helped many training of fluency in aboard. Thus, by intentionally open the chance of adapting and transforming SAFMEDS to be applied in vocational high school classroom, the purpose of this study were to find out whether or not there was any significant difference between the use of SAFMEDS and wordlist in vocabulary learning of two hotel department classrooms. This study was conducted purposively in the second grade of hotel department of SMK Negeri 3 Luwuk in the first term of 2017/2018 academic year. This study administered English vocabulary test to collect quantitative data by focusing on playing SAFMEDS cards containing hotel department terminologies as the core material.
Through quasi-experimental research design, the analysis of quantitative data showed that there was a significant difference between the mean score of the students who were learning vocabulary by using SAFMEDS and the mean score of the students who were learning vocabulary by using wordlist. As for the second research question, the researcher found that the aspect of vocabulary which was dominantly affected by the use of SAFMEDS was the aspect of vocabulary in term of form. Keywords: SAFMEDS, vocabulary learning
INTRODUCTION
People often focus on grammar errors which lead them to a fear of being wrong in learning new language. It means they do not adequately understand that their anxiety only trap them into longer ignorance. The most important that people should note is that language is none other than the collection of words.
Those words, no matter what language they are learning, should be understood as their assets to go further with the new language. That is because, actually, the difference between people, as the language learners and native speakers of the target language was their lexical competence (Laufer, 1998). Someone with adequate words collection will be able to create more meaningful sentences rather than someone who just knows a very less of words. Folse in Pekka (2013) noted that improving vocabulary has a direct and positive impact to build up someone’s capacity in language proficiency as a whole.
The most commonly way to learn vocabulary is learning by using dictionaries. Astika (2016) assumes that the learners’ awareness of the role of vocabulary will be reflected when they consult dictionaries for difficult vocabulary items. However, such way of learning can be time consuming (Mehring, 2005). In this case, He suggests that rather developing lessons which allow learners to encounter new words multiple times, it is better to develop word lists from the context of the lesson can reduce the work load, enabling the student to encounter the word multiple times through reading, listening, and speaking. SAFMEDS is one of the tools often used in Precision Teaching methodologies. It is the abbreviation of Say All Fast Minute Every Day Shuffled.
The acronym refers to say the contents of all cards aloud within a brief time period every day after shuffle the cards (Quigley, 2014). It is very helpful for students to become fluent in definitions and basic concepts, and therefore ideally suited to practicing vocabulary of two languages ((Beverly, Hughes, & Hastings, 2016). Students as language learners will be trained to develop their vocabulary through practicing some packages of SAFMEDS cards. Based on the background, the purposes of this study are to find out: 1. Whether or not there was any significant difference between the vocabulary learning of the students who were treated by using SAFMEDS and the vocabulary learning of the students who were treated by using wordlist.
2. The aspects of vocabulary which was dominantly affected by the use of SAFMEDS?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Some previous studies have been reviewed by this current study. The first and the second study are related to SAFMEDS (Meindl et al. (2013); Kubina Jr. et al., 2015).
The two previous studies are multiwork projects since they were conducted by more than one researcher for each. This current research was dealed with SAFMEDS cards, but under the responsibility of a single researcher. Besides, there is also no research related with the implementation of SAFMEDS Cards and precision teaching that have been specifically explored by the Indonesian researchers. Therefore, the researcher is interested to put the case into Indonesian context, especially in a non-mainstream school, which has low exposure of learning English. Related to the second variable and also as the dependent variable of this research, the researcher reviewed some research projects as well.
It is important for anyone entering a profession to learn their profession’s specialised language. This principle leads the third study which were conducted by Coxhead, Parkinson, ; Tu’amoheloa (2017) This is also true of those learning trades such as automotive technology or plumbing. Knowledge of specialised language allows trades professionals to speak to other professionals and read technical material. Coxhead et al. (2017) are the same line with this current research in the case of its focus on profession’s specialised language. Whereas Coxhead et al.
(2017) focused on automotive technology, the current research will focus on hotel departments and/or hotel accomodation world. METHOD This study used quantitative research with quasi-experimental design. Therefore, there were two groups namely experimental and control group involved. Besides, this study focused on applying SAFMEDS cards in a non-mainstream school as an effort of enhancing the result of vocabulary learning.
SAFMEDS is a set of cards which containing details or information in one side of the cards and statement or words in another side of the cards. They were played and used as learning media in experimental class with two techniques: trial and real SAFMEDS cards. Trial means the students were only given ten cards to be played in twenty seconds while the real one means the students were given time to play a deck of cards consist of forty cards within one minute (sixty seconds). The population of the research was the grade XI students of SMK Negeri 3 Luwuk in academic year 2017/2018.
The school is located in Jalan Raya Luwuk Nambo, in the district of Nambo, about 20 kilometers from Luwuk, the capital city of Banggai regency, Central Sulawesi. There are three skill groups or departments in the grade XI of the school, namely Perhotelan (hotel management), Tata Busana (Fashion Design), and Jasa Boga (Food and Beverage Production). After verified the population, the researcher determined the sample of this research. Thus, this study purposively took class XI AKP A and class XI AKP B as the samples for their same department and level.
XI AKP A was the experimental class and the students of class XI AKP B was the control class. The main instrument of this study was English vocabulary test. Paper based form of English Vocabulary test was administered to students. The content of the test was mainly based on the curriculum that is being used at school. The test will be given in pre test and post test. There are 40 questions divided into several sections that must be answered by the students within 90 minutes.
There are several stages had been completed in order to collect the data of this study. The first stage was administering pre-test of English vocabulary test to know the prior knowledge of the students. After that, students in experimental class and control class had their different treatments. The experimental class was learning by using SAFMEDS while the control class was learning vocabulary by using wordlist.
The treatment lasted for four meeting for each class. The last stage was administering post test. The procedure of data analysis also consisted of three stages, namely scoring English vocabulary test in pre test and post of the students, testing the hypothesis by using t-test with ? = 0.05 level of significance for independent sample, and taking the final conclusion in order to answer the research questions that have been presented as the purposes of this study. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS 1. The Results of Pre-test and Post-test The findings of this study was began by the researcher’s report after compared the mean score of the students in experimental class and control class in pretest and posttest. Table 1: Mean Score and Standard Deviation (SD) of the Students of Experimental Class and Control Class in Pre Test and Post Test The decision of accepting the alternative hypothesis was also supported by the homogeneity of experimental class and control class.
Based on Levene’s Test for Equality of Variances (in SPSS) between the two classes in pretest, it was found that the two classes (XI AKP A and XI AKP B) were homogeny, proved by the result of significance = 0.021 which was not higher than 0.05. Therefore, it can be assumed that the difference of mean score of the two classes had something to do with the treatments that were also different, not because there was any internal difference inside the groups. The fact that the students in experimental class can get higher score was also because they had practiced playing SAFMEDS cards regularly. However, what makes the students could not perform better lied in the frequency of playing the cards.
Despite of playing the cards regularly by taking minimum ten cards per meeting, the researcher had limited that each student should only practicing play one deck (ten cards) from one to three times in five meeting and practicing playing forty cards within one minute (60 seconds) in the last day of the treatment. In the same way, the practicing of playing ten cards from the four decks of cards confirmed to multiple exemplar training proposed by Meindl et al. (2013) and additional practice by Graff and Auman (2005). Then, in a different way, Beverly, Hughes, ; Hastings (2016) examined the use of SAFMEDS containing two different languages in two sides of the cards, played by a number of students in a mainstream school.
Confirming to the result of the study conducted by Beverly, Hughes, ; Hastings (2016) which was difficult to see the correlation between the SAFMEDS cards practice frequency and the achievement of the students, this current research control the opportunity of exposure toward the cards. However, whether or not the students had already accustomed to some important thing in SAFMEDS like how to hold the cards, manage the timer, decide partner, and fill in a playing recording sheet had not been taken into account although the researcher believes that they could be related. Testing Hypothesis From the post test data, the researcher tested the hypothesis by using SPSS 21. The level of significance is set at ? = 0.05, df = 36, and formula of the statistical hypothesis in this research was two tailed. The result can be seen in the following table. Table 2: T-Test and T-Table of the Students’ Pre Test and Post Test df Variable T-Test Value T-Table Value 36 Pre Test -0.558 2.028 36 Post Test 2.172 2.028 From table 2, it can be seen that the t-test of students’ pretest (-0.558) was not higher than the t-table (2.028).
In one word, the students of experimental class got lower result than the students in control class. In another word, the students of experimental class did not perform better than the students in control class, and their vocabulary acquisition was still very low. Nevertheless, after they were given treatment, the t-test on posttest was higher (2.172) than the t-table (2.028). The analysis shows that the null hypothesis (H0) was rejected and the alternative hypothesis (H1) was accepted. It indicates that there was significant difference between the mean score of the students who were treated by using SAFMEDS in their vocabulary learning and the mean score of the students who were treated by using wordlist in their vocabulary learning. 2. Aspect of Vocabulary By taking three extracts from experimental class and three extracts of control class, the answers of the students in both classes will be described in the following details.
The first is the aspect of form. The difference score of the students in experimental class and control class in this aspect especially in pretest was 10.53 point. In this case, the students were asked to write the correct form of English words to complete the blank in the sentence. Below are the two extracts of the students in completing the sentence “The highest position in hotel is .
. . ” Correct Answer Pretest Answer Posttest Answer General manager Table 3: Student A1’s answer in pretest and posttest of the form aspect Table 4: Student B7’s answer in pretest and posttest of the form aspect Correct Answer Pretest Answer Posttest Answer General manager From table 3 and table 4, it can be seen that at first the student E1 did not write the correct form of the definition of the terms given. Being confused to decide that, the student wrote both of them.
However he failed. Fortunately, he was able to answer the question after the treatment. He wrote, “General manager” with the correct form. Meanwhile, student B1 also did not write the correct form. The student B1 also failed to decide the correct words.
In this case she got zero point. After the treatment, student C1 was able to determine the concept of the words but she failed to write the correct form (table 4). Table 5: Student A1’s answer in pretest and posttest of the usage aspect. Pretest Answer Posttest Answer The second is usage. This time, the students should choose the appropriate words in order to complete the sentence. They should determine where and when they should put the words in a sentence.
was better than the students in control class. In pretest and posttest, there were two correct answers of student A1 (from experimental class). Table 6: Student B7’s answer in pretest and posttest of the usage aspect. Pretest Answer Posttest Answer From the data in table 5 and 6, it can be stated that student B1 did not make any improvement before and after the treatment. This is because there were no correct answers that the student had in both pretest and posttest, especially in terms of aspect vocabulary usage.
The third is meaning. In this aspect, the mean score of the students in experimental class was also higher than the mean score of the students in control class. It means that the ability of determining the right concept refers to the word of the students in experimental class was better than the students in control class. It means that the use of SAFMEDS cards which were played by the students in experimental class gave more contribution for their ability to understand the meaning of the words. Below are the example of answers of three questions by Student A1 and B1. Table 7: Student A1’s answer in pretest and posttest of the meaning aspect.
Details Pretest Posttest The True Answer The Chosen Answer The True Answer The Chosen Answer Wheeled small vehicle to transport luggage is called . . . . Luggage Cart Luggage Cart Luggage Cart Luggage Cart Someone who is responsible of keeping the hotel linens is a … Linen Maid Linen Rack Linen Maid Linen Storage “The Air Conditioner’s temperature is too low. Can you give me that . .
. . I’m cold. Blanket Pillow case Blanket Pillow case Table 8: Student B7’s answer in pretest and posttest of the meaning aspect. Details Pretest Posttest The True Answer The Chosen Answer The True Answer The Chosen Answer Wheeled small vehicle to transport luggage is called .
. . . Luggage Cart Luggage supplies Luggage Cart Luggage Cart Someone who is responsible of keeping the hotel linens is a … Linen Maid Linen rack Linen Maid Linen Store “The Air Conditioner’s temperature is too low. Can you give me that .
. . . I’m cold. Blanket Head Pillow Blanket Pillow case The mean score of overall analytical statistical aspects in the posttest generally show possitivedifference on the three aspects of vocabulary.
However, the most influenced or improved aspect of vocabulary in experimental class and control class was form. In this case, students in experimental class got higher score as well. This finding supported Milton’s assumption (2009) that stated: “Most able learners most recognize words by seeing them rather than listening them”. From Milton’s statement, the researcher assumed that the student in experimental class got higher performance in the aspects of form because they had already been exposed to play SAFMEDS cards. It is very beneficial for the students because they not only can listen to the words because they have to pronounce them but they also can try their sight to recognize more words. In addition, based on Dale’s Cone of Experience (1969), SAFMEDS can help students to get the very bottom of cone in Dale’s theory.
It means that students can have direct purposeful experience as they had already used their sight to read the clues in the front side of cards, and then their oral sense to say the answers in the back side of the cards, as well as use their hands to move on the every card in particular period.
CONCLUSION
There are two main research questions that had been tried to explore in the previous chapter. From the data analysis it was found thatthat there was significant difference between the mean score of the students who were treated by using SAFMEDS in their vocabulary learning andthe mean score of the students who were treated by using wordlist in their vocabulary learning. Secondly, the researcher found that the aspect of vocabulary which was dominantly affectedby the use of SAFMEDS cards is the aspect of vocabulary in term of form.
