ENHANCING YOUNG LEARNERS’ VOCABULARY: What can we do?
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Date
2013-08-27
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TEFLIN International Conference, Indonesia University
Abstract
Vocabulary is one of the influential elements that young learners must master in order to be fluent users of English. Fluent users mean that they are able to involve actively in different kinds of activities by using their receptive and productive skills of English: reading, listening, speaking and writing. Uberman (1998:20) states, “Vocabulary acquisition is increasingly viewed as crucial to language acquisition”. At this stage of life, young learners are capable of absorbing rich exposures of English if given appropriately since they are still in the stage of life called the golden age. This means that they are surprisingly able to learn and acquire vocabulary fast. Therefore, giving right scaffoldings may result in better learning outcome. On the other hand, young learners learn English quite differ from those of adults do. They need certain approaches in order to reach the learning objectives since they have unique characteristics in learning. Thus, the teaching and learning vocabulary should be designed in such a way catering their learning characteristics. This paper will discuss 1) challenges in vocabulary learning, 2) activities in teaching vocabulary, and 3) and suggestions to the teaching and learning of vocabulary
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young learners, vocabulary, learning characteristics, activities