TEACHING VOCABULARY BY USING CHARADES TECHNIQUE FOR

YOUNG LEARNERS

Oleh:

Dhika Lomita Rafinggi*)

**)M. Khairi Ikhsan Staff Pengajar Program Studi Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris

(STKIP) PGRI West Sumatera

ABSTRAK

Kualitas dalam mengajar merupakan salah satu keterampilan dasar yang harus dimiliki
oleh guru, karena dengan memiliki kualitas yang bagus guru dapat menciptakan dan
mengembalikan kondisi belajar yang optimal bagi terciptanya proses belajar-mengajar
yang efektif. Apabila guru tidak memiliki kualitas dikhawatirkan proses belajar-
mengajar tidak dapat berjalan secara efektif. Namun kenyataannya ada sebagian guru
mengalami kesulitan dalam mengajar. Hal ini disebabkan karena kurangnya
pengetahuan guru dalam penggunaan teknik. Dalam hal itu akan banyak menimbulkan
masalah bukan hanya berdampak pada guru saja tapi juga bagi para siswa. Jika teknik
yang digunakan tidak menarik maka dalam proses belajar mengajar bahasa inggris
akan membosankan. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan sebuah cara atau teknik untuk
membantu guru dalam mengatasi masalah tersebut. Di sini penulis menggunakan
Charades sebagai teknik dalam mengajarkan Vocabulary. Charades adalah sebuah
teknik untuk mempermudahkan guru dalam mengajarkan kosa kata pada young
learners dan mempermudah siswa dalam mengetahui makna kata. teknik ini, guru
meminta siswa duduk berkelompok, setiap kelompok diberi satu kata dan salah satu
dalam setiap kelompok memperagakan makna kata tersebut. Dengan menggunakan
teknik ini diharapkan dapat memudahkan guru dalam mengajarkan bahasa inggris dan
meningkatkan motivasi, serta ketertarikan siswa dalam memahami pelajaran bahasa
inggris.

Key words: Teaching Vocabulary and Charades Technique

can not
*) Penulis understand, read,
write, and
**) Pembimbing
speak if they do allows us to
INTRODUCTION not know communicate.
vocabulary. Mastering
Vocabulary is a basic
Vocabulary is vocabulary
component that is very important to important determines the
because it success in
learn foreign languages. The students
English, if the
students have a lot of
in everyday life.
vocabularies, they will be easy to learn
However, teaching
vocabulary
so different from Indonesian language,
not only in understanding the meaning
but also in pronouncing the words.
Therefore, the teachers should have
specific ability in teaching. They should
know who the students are and how to
attract them to learn vocabulary.
Teachers should be patient and give
more attention for the students because
the students need the teachers’ attention
in the learning process.
Basically, in teaching vocabulary for
young learners, the teachers should
facilitate the students to build their basic
ability in English through mastering
vocabulary. In fact, the writer did an
observation at 5 grades on teaching
vocabulary for young learners can be said
that it is not success yet. Nowadays, there
were some problems that made the
students difficult to master vocabolaries.
First, many students can not express
words well because they have not much
vocabulary and they have difficulties in
remember the meaning of words, made
them bored in learning it in the class.
Second, the students do not understand
about the meaning of words that the
teacher says and they mostly found the
difficulties on how to enrich their
vocabulary meaning. This condition was
usually found when the teacher given
greeting or some instruction to the
students.
different opinion about the importance
of vocabulary in learning language.
According to Cameron (2001:95),
vocabulary is fundamental to use the
foreign language as discourse, since
vocabulary is both learned from
participating in discourse, and is
essential to participating in it. Based on
statement above vocabulary is a basic
vocabulary in the language, the
vocabulary is very necessary to learn so
we have to increase the vocabulary to
facilitate the use of language.
English as well as
is not an easy task
for the teachers. It
is
In addition, to solve the problem above,
there are some techniques that can be
used in teaching vocabulary for young
learners such as: Quick writes technique,
Museum Walk technique, charades
technique. First, Quick writes to utilize
background knowledge to formulate
meaning of work. Second Museum Walks
to imprint visual meaning by creating a
representation of a word. Charades
Technique can be used in increasing
students’ vocabulary at for young
learners. Students will be easier to
remember the words. Finally, Charades
Technique helps students learn to express
their feeling and understand the feeling of
others. By choosing one of the
appropriate techniques the students will
be interested in learning vocabulary and
help them to improve their vocabulary.
REVIEW OF THE RELATED
LITERATURE
Vocabulary is a collection of words
used in the language to communicate. It
is an important aspect that should be
learnt by students, because the language
related to the words. Without having
sufficient vocabulary a student can not
communicate, so he or she should have
had enough vocabulary to simplify the
language like to convey an idea in
spoken and written. Some experts have
In addition, Richards and Rennadya
(2004:255) defines that vocabulary is a
core component of language proficiency
and provides much of the basis for how
well learners speak, listen, read, and
write. Based on this statement, it is clear
that vocabulary gives effects for skills
in English. Without mastering
vocabulary, the students can not master
English because all of the skills in
English are related to words. If the
students have less vocabulary, they will
not be successful in speaking, listening,
reading, and writing. So, learning
English will be successful, if the
students master vocabulary.
Furthermore, Linse (2005:121) defines
that vocabulary is the collection of
words that an individual knows. It
means that students must have a lot of
vocabularies to facilitate the interaction
students will not be able to use the
language without sufficient vocabulary,
then as students take advantage of the
time when learning vocabulary.
Furthermore, Cameron (2001:72) states
that vocabulary is the central of learning
a foreign language and primary level. .
Based on the statement above, as a
central in English learning, the students
must have enough vocabulary because it
is the key in foreign language learning.
When the students want to master
English, they must get sufficient
vocabulary.
Then, Graves (2009:1) explains that
importance of vocabulary is daily
with others. Students who have
sufficient vocabulary be applied in
making good language, they will be
more confident and easier to convey
ideas in a controlled vocabulary.
Based on explanation above, the writer
can conclude that vocabulary is a
collection of words that a person
knows, it is an important component of
the speaking ability. Without a sufficient
vocabulary, students will not be able to
understand the reading, listening,
speaking, and writing. Vocabulary give
the effect of all skills, without have
vocabulary the students can not master
of a foreign language. If the students
have lack of vocabulary, she or he will
be confused or lack of confidence in
communication because of all the skills
in the English language dealing with
words.
The Important of Vocabulary
Vocabulary is very important to learn
English. Students must have sufficient
vocabulary to be easy to follow learning
process. By having enough vocabulary,
they are able to arrange the sentence
and communicate well. In addition,
Coady and Huckin (1997:5) Proposes
vocabulary as central to language and of
critical importance to the typical
language learner. It means that the
students must learn the vocabulary is
the language center. The
demonstrated in schools and out. In the
classroom, the achieve students posses
the most adequate vocabularies.
Because of the verbal nature of most
classroom activities, knowledge of
words and ability to use language are
essential to success in these activities. It
means that the students should have
much vocabulary. They are not only use
vocabulary in school but also outside,
the more learned vocabulary more
easily speaking students both at school
and in the environment.
It can be concluded that vocabulary is
central to language and central of
learning a foreign language. Because in
speaking, reading, listening, writing, it
is use vocabulary, without a sufficient
vocabulary students can not
Students can know the meaning of the
words by gesture of the teachers. It can
be used to describe something.
Performing and action
In telling the story, it is very important
for the teachers to do the action based
the situation given because it can make
the students interested to the story
because the teacher makes the students
feel that it is real and they will be easy
communication by well, so vocabulary
is very important to learn.
Teaching Vocabulary
Teaching vocabulary deals with knowing
meaning from the words. The teachers
should teach the words that related to the
students’ life by using the appropriate
strategy, media, technique, etc. The
teacher should adjust them based on the
level of students. According to Cameron
(2001:75), teaching vocabulary focuses
on helping students to build up
knowledge of words also it will be able to
the students to use the language
efficiently and successfully It means that
teaching vocabulary must be carefully to
make students can enjoy the learning and
attract with the English subject. If they
are attracted with the lesson, they will get
spirit full in learning vocabulary.
Besides, Nation in Cameron (2001:85)
proposes that there are some listed basic
techniques that can be used by teacher
in young learner classroom:
By demonstration and picture
Using an object
In teaching English, teacher should use
the real object that are related to the
material will be learnt. It can help the
teacher to make the students understand
about the material.
Using Gesture
Gesture is one of the aids to help the
teacher in explaining the material.
to understand the story.
Photograph
The teachers use the picture to help
them in explaining the material. The
photograph should be appropriate with
the material and children’s world.
Drawing or diagram on the board
Drawing something or diagram to make
the lesson that explained will be clear
for the students.

Pictures from the books
In teaching, the teachers also use the
pictures not only from the books but
also in TV, video or computer. The
pictures can attract students to catch
the ideas that teachers delivered. By
verbal explanation
Putting the new word in defining
context
The teacher can help to activate
schemas or networks that will in turn
help understanding. If the students
know hospital, then mention it will
attention of students to know the
material, with the techniques used in
teaching vocabulary teacher must first
match which techniques are suitable for
use in this matter, because by using a
technique more suited to the material
that will be presented that can improve
students' curiosity and enthusiasm in
learning.
The Characteristic of Young learners
Young learners are the beginners in
learning English. They have some
characteristics. It can cause the
help them construct a meaning for
ambulance, by activating scenarios
connected with hospitals.
Translating into another language The
new words can be translated to the
source language. It can help the students
to know the meaning of the
words by translating to the language.
Furthermore, Verghese
(2007:87) states that the teaching of
vocabulary is as important as the
teaching of structures. A thorough
familiarity with the syntax of English
and an ability to use the basic structures
of the language are a prerequisite, but
equally important is a command of
words. teaching vocabulary is the basic
teaching is the basic structure of the
language, to achieve a good language, a
teacher must teach the basics before
teaching a higher level so that the
formation of a good language.
Based on explanation above, the writer
can conclude, teaching vocabulary to
build knowledge of word, teaching
vocabulary can be presented in many
ways. In teaching vocabulary, teachers
can use the media, gestures, translating
the word. The teachers can use them
based on the needs and level of the
students. the teacher must have expertise
in teaching, especially in the teaching of
vocabulary, the teacher in teaching
vocabulary using basic stages by teaching
techniques that can attract the
differences of ways of thinking and
needs. In addition, Philips (1993:3)
explains that young learner means the
first children means children from the
first year of formal schooling (five or
six years old) to eleven or twelve years
of age. It means that young learner
consist of 5 until 12 year old. They need
more attention from the teachers and
like the fun thing. Teachers should build
their interest in learning English. They
should know their needs to adjust the
strategy in teaching.
Furthermore, Brewster and et all in
Gabrielatos (1998:54) proposes that
there are several characteristics of
young learner:
Children can justify choices and
opinions
They need to be supported in their
understanding of the propositional
learning and should understand the
students’ condition, because younger
children need more attention that their
enthusiasm in learning. According to
Schmiit in Cameron (2001:93) proposes
that there are some principles of helping
the children to learn vocabulary:
Teachers can model how to use strategies
and draw children’s attention explicitly to
aspects of strategy use. For example,
teachers can show how to find clues to the
meaning of a new word in a picture or in
other words in the same sentence.
content of a message by moving from
the concrete to the abstract
Their attention span is limited.
Therefore, tasks should be short, varied,
motivating and interesting, and should
offer concrete perceptual
support.
Then, Nunan (2011) states that young
learner covers a large chronological age
span: from around 3 years of age to 15.
It means that elementary school
students are consisting age 7 until 12
years old, so an elementary school
student is as young learners.
Based on the explanation above, the
writer concludes that young learners
consist of age 3 until 15 years old. They
have various characteristics in learning.
For example: they like asking questions
during the lesson, need more attention,
they like fun thing, they are logical and
have limited concentration in learning. As
good teachers, they should know the
characteristics and can motivate them in
learning because they are young learners
who are developing their interest toward
the learning and they do not understand
with what the learning yet.
Teaching Vocabulary for Young
Learners
Teaching vocabulary for young learners,
the teacher should have specific ability to
teach young learners. Teacher should give
more attention for them in
Teachers can teach the sub-skills needed
to make use of strategies. For example:
to use dictionary efficiently requires
knowledge of alphabetical order and
lots of practice with it.
Classroom tasks can include structured
opportunities for using strategies. For
example: when reading a story, teachers
can explicitly encourage prediction of
the meanings of new words.
Independent strategy use can be
rehearsed in classrooms. For example,
children can be helped to prepare lists of
words that they want to learn from a
lesson, can be shown ways of learning
from lists and later can be put in pairs to
test each other.
Young learners can be helped to
reflect on the learning process through
evaluating their
words they use often, because it will
facilitate they remember the meaning of
the word.
Based on the explanation above, the
writer concludes that teaching
vocabulary for young learners there are
many ways of which teachers can use
real objects, engage students in learning
or practicing directly. Teachers must be
able to attract the attention of children
explicitly in use in teaching techniques,
using pictures or objects that cause the
achievements. For example, at the end
of a lesson they can be asked how many
new words they have learnt, and which
words they need to learn more about.
Through regular self evaluation,
children can come to understand more
about what they are learning and how.
In addition, Suyanto (2007:48) states
that teaching vocabulary for young
learners can be done as follow:
Introducing : The teacher introduces the
new words by using the picture or the real
objects clearly and correctly.
Modeling : The teacher gives
examples by practicing as a model.
Practicing : Teacher trains the students
to imitate.
Applying : The students apply in the
suitable condition by using teacher’s
help.
Moreover, Nicolov (2007:108) explains
that quite explicit about what words
children should learn at the early stages of
FL learning. According to her findings,
children should be exposed to those
words the content of which is already
familiar to them in their mother tongue.
the students in learning vocabulary
introduced a variety of foreign languages,
to facilitate them in learning vocabulary
in a foreign language, teachers need to
find an easy way to quickly understand
and know the students, the teacher can
relate to the
curiosity of children to the material
presented. To use the object on
vocabulary learning, teachers must
relate it to their lives, because it will
facilitate them in learning vocabulary.
Charades Technique
Charades is one of the techniques that
can be used in teaching vocabulary. It
will help teachers in learning English.
According Kaduson and Schaefer
(2003:217) defines that Charades is an
excellent technique to facilitate the
emotional education of the children. It
can be used as prevention for the
emotional well-being of children
experiencing emotional difficulties, or
remediation for children who appear to
be lagging in emotional development.
Because this technique requires the
child to be in the spotlight and the
center of attention for a few minutes, it
is intrinsically motivating. Games of
charades or pantomime that involve
to some experts. According to Dayton
(1990:151), there are some steps in
teaching vocabulary by using Charades:
One player acts out something specific,
such as pretending to be a certain
animal or person or pretending to be
doing a certain activity such as sewing,
playing cards, watching and so on.
The other players try to guess who the
acting player is or what they are doing.
You can have players working together
in twos, threes or fours miming a
body movement and facial expressions
are fun and encourage creativity and
spontaneity on the part of the child.
Besides, Teare (2006:76) states that
charades technique is a technique
miming the individual parts of a word.
It means that the technique use mime
stile to know meaning word. In addition
Ellery (2009:149) states that Charades
technique is a technique to make a
mental image of a word to aid in
recalling the word. It means charades
technique can help students in
vocabulary and can be easy students in
remember the word.
Based on the explanation above, the
writer concludes that Charades technique
can help students in knowing meaning of
words. Because the activities of this
technique using pantomime style cues and
engage students in physical activity and
provoke curiosity of students to find out,
this technique uses exciting ways to
define a word, because young children
prefer to learn by interacting directly, this
technique thinking child to guess a word
by using gestures, this will help students
define or remember the meaning of the
word.
The Step of using Charades Technique
in Teaching Vocabulary
There are some steps in applying
Charades technique according
situation or an activity while the others
guess.
Besides Maley and Duff (2007:174)
proposes that the procedures by using
Charades technique are:
You will need to explain, and then
demonstrate, how charades works, the
idea is that an individual (or group) has a
word that they convey to others by
miming and using sounds (but not words).
Usually this is done by breaking the word
into chunks and acting out teach chunk
separately, if the word was tennis, you
might show ten fingers, then point at your
knees; if the word was humorous, you
could start by laughing a lot, then point to
yourself and others to show us; if the
word was detestation, you could make a
face showing hate/disgust,
In conclusion, teaching vocabulary by
using Charades can be modified based
on the level of students but the purposes
are same to increase students’
vocabulary well. Using Charades should
be suitable with the materials and level
of the students. Teacher should give
more attention for them in learning
process because the children need
attention and reward to appreciate their
job. in this technique the students more
active because students use gestures
such as playing cards, acting style
pantomime interlocutors addressed to
them, with this process students will be
then mime waiting for a train at a
station.
When students have idea, divide them
into groups of five. Give one word slip
to one person in each group. This
student then has to present the word as
quickly as possible to the other group
members.
As soon as groups correctly guess the
first word, give out a different slip to
another group member. Continue with
the activity till everyone has had a turn.
Conduct whole-class feedback, inviting
volunteers to present some of their words
to everyone. What were
the most ingenious mimes? Moreover,
Allery (2009:149)
states that the steps are as follow:
Write some chosen vocabulary words or
phrases from the text on note cards and
have students take turns selecting a word
card and acting out (role playing or
pantomiming) the meaning of the word on
the card while holding or moving related
or symbolic objects. Suggested teacher
talk could be “what part of the pantomime
helped you to know the word?”
Have students give suggestions for what
the word might be until the correct word
is identified.
Return to the text, and highlight the
words students acted out within the text.
more active and increases students'
enthusiasm for learning.
Based on three expert above, the writer
choose one procedure by expert such as
Dayton (1990:151), because by using
the procedure, the students will be easy
in learning vocabulary.
Advantages of Charades Technique
Charades technique gives the advantages
in increasing vocabulary. According to
Kaduson and Schaefer (2003:218),
charades can be used to develop
therapeutic rapport with the child. The
therapist can “stack the deck" by deciding
which feelings are included in the game
or the order in which the cards are drawn.
Selected self-disclosure of feelings by the
therapist similar to
the act or the words, we see young people
saying the words did not match what was
said, this technique trains students to say
the word by setting erosion as well as in
acting. Students in the class using this
technique in groups because students
prefer to work in groups, the group of
students to think how to provide the
meaning of the words they have, in a way
pantomime or gestures. So that the
children who watched would think to
guess what the word was presented,
children are happier and inspire them to
learn vocabulary.
DISCUSSION
what the child is experiencing helps to
facilitate a development of compassion
and understanding. Feeling charades
can serve as a warm-up for sharing
deeper emotional issues and help to
establish a comfort level through
acceptance of all feeling. This technique
helps children to regulate their emotion
in the delivery of a word.
Besides, Layne (2007:150) proposes
that this technique having a mixed age
team also has the advantage of helping a
younger child learn how to act out
words. These techniques learn how to
use the vocabulary words using
measures appropriate to the words that
we speak. This helps students to define
the word, and adjust the action with the
spoken word.
Furthermore Himmele (2011:72) states
that take them to activities of higher
level thinking. It is also a lot of fun
when students are asked to do this in a
group. By using the techniques students
are encouraged to think that done in
groups, it makes them more
comfortable in conducting activities in
the classroom and outside, and using
this technique will facilitate them to
learn vocabulary.
Based on the explanation above, the
writer can conclude, charades techniques
can help students was studying
vocabulary, techniques in teaching
students to manage emotions in
In this chapter, the writer will discuss
about some topics discussion. The
topics will be divided into two stages.
They are: teaching vocabulary by using
Charades Technique and procedures of
teaching activities.
Teaching Vocabulary by Using
Charades Technique
Teacher should prepare everything
before teaching to help her or him in
teaching because good preparation will
help her or him in teaching-learning
process. Teacher should organize what
he or she will do in the teaching. There
are several things that should be
considered in teaching, such as:
material, in media the teacher use
picture, technique and then time
allocation for Young learners is 2x35
last activity is the teacher closes the
lesson.
CONCLUSIONS
Based on the previous chapters, the writer
can make conclusion that Vocabulary is
one of the aspects that should be gotten by
students in learning language. Vocabulary
is collection of words that individual
knows and uses. Interaction never
happens without vocabulary. In English,
the students should increase their
vocabulary because all of the skills are
related to words.
Teaching vocabulary is not an easy task
for teachers. Although there are many
techniques in teaching English, the
teachers should choose the appropriate
technique in teaching based on the level
minute. To Pre-teaching activities are 10
minute, While-teaching activities 40
minute and Post-teaching activities 20
minute. They should be suitable with
the level of students. The teachers
should consider about the students, such
as: Who the students are, what the
material is, how much the time to teach
the material for the students, etc.
Pre-teaching vocabulary activities consist
of some activities, such as: teacher greets
the students, checks attendance list, and
brainstorms the students’ ideas about the
topic by using pictures. In whilst-teaching
vocabulary activities, teacher explains the
materials and invites the students to play
“describe condition”. The students player
act something specific (person), the other
players try to guess who the acting player
is or what they are doing, the students
working together in fours miming a
situation or an activity while the others
guess. And then, every group performs in
front of the class. In the post-teaching
vocabulary activities, teacher wants to
know their understanding about the
material learnt. There are some activities
in this step, such as: teacher asks some
students to answer the questions that
related to the materials. After that, the
teacher gives the homework to make the
students more understandable about the
topics. And the
of students. Teacher should know the
problems of students and the
characteristics of students. Teaching
vocabulary for young learners is not
easy because they are easy to get
influence from outside and inside.
The Charades technique is one of the
techniques in teaching vocabulary. It can
help the teachers in teaching and help the
students to know about meaning of
vocabulary. It consists of: listening,
spelling, pronouncing, translating, and
awriting based on the real life. In
applying Charades technique, there are
three steps that be done. They are: Pre-
teaching Vocabulary Activities, Whilst-
Teaching Vocabulary Activities, and
technique, etc.
Post-teaching Vocabulary Activities.
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