Effects of direct vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategies instruction on Indonesian prospective english teachers’ vocabulary size

Abstract

The objectives of the study were: 1) to explore the effects of direct vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategies instruction on Indonesian prospective English teachers’ vocabulary size, and 2) to investigate the students’ opinions towards the treatment of direct vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategies instruction. The study was one-group pretest-posttest, pre-experimental design. The instruments employed in this study were the Vocabulary Levels Test (VLT) and a semi-structured interview. The samples were the 33 first-year students majoring in English education at University of Kutai Kartanegara, Indonesia for the Academic Year 2017/2018. The findings of the study showed that there was a significant difference between the students’ mean scores in the pretest and the posttest at the significant level of 0.05. The results indicated that the implementation of direct vocabulary and vocabulary learning strategies improved the students’ vocabulary size. The results of the interview reported that the implementation of the treatment had positive effects on the students’ vocabulary learning in terms of learning motivation, vocabulary improvement, and improvement in using the vocabulary learning strategies. The finding also reported that the students applied the strategies to learn vocabulary at home and most of them preferred to use memory strategies.