66 

 

Teachers’ Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary at the First Year Students of MTs. 

Asholihiyah Lopan Ketak East Lombok 

 

Kamarudin (kamarudin_din15@yahoo.com) 

Faculty of Language and Art Education (FPBS) 

Institute of Teacher Training and Education (IKIP) Mataram 

 

ABSTRACT 

This research deals with teachers‟ techniques in teaching English vocabulary at the 

first year students of MTs Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East Lombok. It is expected 

to serve as an attempt to contribute to more teachers‟ techniques in teaching 

vocabulary at junior high school in especially in Assholihiyah Lopan Ketas East 

Lombok as well as the reference to the teachers who teach English vocabulary. It 

applied a qualitative approach. The subject of the research was one of English 

teacher. The data was collected through questionnaire and interview. The data was 

analyzed through data reduction, display, and conclusion. The result was the 

teacher of class 1 (1 and 2) used the identifying picture and categorizing object 

technique.  And the teacher in class 1 (3) used categorizing objects technique to 

teach English vocabulary. Those techniques found from the textbook, so the teacher 

develops this technique by herself. In presenting English especially vocabulary, the 

teacher should be creative in choosing the material and able to stimulate the 

students interest. 

 

Key Words: Teachers’ Techniques, Vocabulary   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

66 

 

Teachers’ Techniques in Teaching Vocabulary at the First Year Students of MTs. 

Asholihiyah Lopan Ketak East Lombok 

 

Kamarudin (kamarudin_din15@yahoo.com) 

Faculty of Language and Art Education (FPBS) 

Institute of Teacher Training and Education (IKIP) Mataram 

 

ABSTRACT 

This research deals with teachers‟ techniques in teaching English vocabulary at the 

first year students of MTs Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East Lombok. It is expected 

to serve as an attempt to contribute to more teachers‟ techniques in teaching 

vocabulary at junior high school in especially in Assholihiyah Lopan Ketas East 

Lombok as well as the reference to the teachers who teach English vocabulary. It 

applied a qualitative approach. The subject of the research was one of English 

teacher. The data was collected through questionnaire and interview. The data was 

analyzed through data reduction, display, and conclusion. The result was the 

teacher of class 1 (1 and 2) used the identifying picture and categorizing object 

technique.  And the teacher in class 1 (3) used categorizing objects technique to 

teach English vocabulary. Those techniques found from the textbook, so the teacher 

develops this technique by herself. In presenting English especially vocabulary, the 

teacher should be creative in choosing the material and able to stimulate the 

students interest. 

 

Key Words: Teachers’ Techniques, Vocabulary   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

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INTRODUCTION 

We soon realized that the need 

of being able to understand English is 

increase. Teacher as a transfer of 

knowledge has very important role in 

facilitating and create a conductive 

atmosphere for language learning. 

Teachers should have techniques or 

methods to teach, without well 

techniques the teachers could not 

teach well. The techniques applied by 

teachers already understood in 

generating their student‟s motivation 

in learning English. Especially 

English vocabularies, as we know the 

student still have problems of 

acquiring English vocabulary. They 

are still confused of the meaning of 

words. They also sometimes could not 

express the meaning of the word texts, 

passages and some literatures due to 

lack vocabulary mastery. The mastery 

of vocabulary has significant benefits 

for students to build up the language 

skill. According to Brown (2004: 50) 

that teaching is an activity that tries to 

help someone to acquire, change or 

develop skill, attitude deal with 

appreciation, and knowledge.  

Some teaching aids can help 

students in learning vocabulary such 

as postcard, film, game, and picture. 

However, methods or techniques that 

students want to use to learn 

vocabulary should be appropriate 

enough. Gebhard (2000:28) suggested 

some procedures in vocabulary 

teaching (1) Teacher chooses an area 

or category of vocabulary they went to 

work. (2) Teacher asks each student to 

think of word in the chosen are 

vocabulary check and keep. (3) 

Teacher checks student work and 

distributed among the student, each 

student has a piece of paper on their 

table. (4) Match the piece of paper 

with the correct answer; make sure no 

one gets their work. (5) Student 

matches they have been dealt on the 

board with definition. 

The students can then consider 

the words as being learned in well 

interpretation. This way of teaching 

and learning will ease students to 

acquire English vocabulary. In order 

to support such benefits, of course 

teachers should creative to choose the 

materials or techniques to stimulate 

students. This is considered to be 

highly important for the students of 

MTs Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East 

Lombok so that they can speak, write, 

read, and listen English language. 

 

Purpose of the Study 

Dealing with teachers‟ 

techniques in teaching English 

vocabulary at MTs Assholihiyah 

Lopan Ketak East Lombok, thus the 

purpose of the study were to find out 

the kinds of techniques which were 

applied by English teacher in teaching 

vocabulary at the first year students in  

MTs. Assolihiyah Lopan Ketak East 

Lombok and to describe the reasons of 

the teachers in applying the techniques 

in teaching vocabulary at the first year 

students in MTS. Assolihiyah Lopan 

Ketak East Lombok. 



 

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RESEARCH METHOD 

 In this study, the researcher used 

descriptive qualitative method. 

Descriptive qualitative studies simply 

describe phenomena. Descriptive 

method describes and interprets what 

exists, Denzin (1994:322). It was used 

since it only observed and described 

teachers‟ techniques in teaching 

English vocabulary at MTs 

Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East 

Lombok. 

 Setting 

This study took place at MTs 

Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East 

Lombok particularly at the first year. 

Subjects of the Study 

 The subject of this study was an 

English teacher who teaches English 

subject at the first year. 

Data and Source of the Data 

The researcher only used the 

interview and questionnaire to collect 

the data in this study. And the source 

of the data was students of MTs 

Assholihiyah Lopan Ketak East 

Lombok at the first year.  

Research Instrument 

In this study, the researcher is 

the key instrument in collecting data. 

In this study the researcher conducted 

the interview.  

Data Collection and Data Analysis 

The researcher collected the 

data by conducting semi-structured 

interview and questionnaire. The 

researcher used the semi-structured 

interview because it is the most 

suitable one. The researcher printed 

the questions and gave it to the subject 

and asked about it spontaneously to 

get deeper answer. The data was 

analyzed based on Miles and 

Huberman‟s (1984) theory; data 

reduction, data display, and 

verification/conclusion. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

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RESEARCH FINDING  

Based on the data finding, it is 

found that the English teacher used 

identifying picture and categorizing 

object in teaching English vocabulary 

in his class. This can be seen in the 

table below:  

No Topic Vocabularies Techniques 

1 Identifying Object: 

-Animals 

 

-Vegetables 

 

-House       

equipments 

-penguin, mouse, 

snake, elephant, 

monkey, and etc. 

-Tomato, spinach, and 

etc. 

-Chair, bed, TV, radio, 

and etc. 

Asking students in 

group object to 

identifying picture and 

categorizing picture of 

the object. 

2 Identifying Object: 

Around the classroom 

-Desk, chair, flower, 

blackboard, flog , 

flees, wail, pictures. 

 

Asking student in 

group to look for the 

object in the 

classroom put names 

in English. 

3 Pronunciation: 

To pronounce the 

name of animals 

 

-mouse, snake, 

elephant, bird, 

monkey, and etc. 

The teacher read the 

names of the animals 

loudly and the 

students follow his. 

4 Guessing: 

The names of object 

-penguin, mouse, 

elephant, bird, 

monkey, and etc. 

Students were asked to 

guess the names of 

animals when the 

teachers explain it. 

 

Guessing s also used in teaching vocabulary. It can be seen in the table below: 

No Topics Vocabularies Techniques 

 1 Guessing: 

The name of object: 

 

-Table, TV, chair, 

bed, and etc.  

Students were asked to 

guess the names of 

object when the teacher 

explains it.   

2 Translation: 

Put the names of object: 

-Background, 

picture flower, 

and etc.  

The teacher wrote the 

names of object on the 

board one by one. 

 

The English teacher, as the 

teacher of the class 1 (1 and 2) used 

the identifying pictures and 

categorizing object since by nature, 

the children are curious and interested 

in learning vocabulary by using 

identifying pictures. He should be able 

to apply certain technique in teaching 

vocabulary subject because the 

students at MTs. Assholihiyah Lopan 

Ketak East Lombok, especially in the 

first year class prefer to learn 

something interesting. It is impossible 

for the teacher to bring the real object 

or model of real covering a large 

number of word and sometimes he 



 

70 

 

think that it is unpractical. Many kinds 

of picture have been successfully 

manipulated to show the meaning of 

word. 

By using the game, the English 

teacher also the teacher English at the 

class 1 (3) believed that this technique 

makes the students more creative to 

investigate the new word. So, the 

function of the technique are not only 

to assist the students to grasp of 

meaning of the new word easily, but 

also makes the variation of teaching in 

order to interest and motivated the 

students learnt in teaching English 

especially vocabulary, he should have 

some new techniques in order to 

increase the students achievement in 

vocabulary, so the guessing game are 

needed by the students to have a 

creative thinking. 

The observation had been 

conducted within four times, it 2, 3, 

11, and 12, of December 2014 in each 

class in which can be described as 

follow: 

1. Identifying Pictures and 

Categorizing Object Technique 

These techniques were used 

in the class where the participant 

taught the students English 

vocabulary. The classification of 

each the class taught by the 

researcher through identifying 

card was as follow:  

a. The class 1 (1 and 2)  

On the first time, the researcher 

observed the study at the class 1 (1 

and 2) when the English teacher, 

the teacher teaches English, 

especially in teaching vocabulary 

on Monday- Tuesday, 2 – 3 

December 2014, there were thirty- 

two students. From the first time of 

observation, it was obtained that 

the teacher who taught at class 

using identifying picture and 

sometimes categorized these 

picture, the categorized object 

technique was applied to help 

students to reflect their learning 

experiences. The title of the 

material was things around the 

students. It was about the students‟ 

equipment and the objects. 

Before the English teacher began 

to teach, he had drown some 

pictures about the school‟s 

equipment on the board, and 

named them. Then he pronounced 

the word and asked the students to 

repeat his orally until they 

pronounced clear and right 

pronunciation. The purpose of this 

actively was aroused the students 

attention to the word. 

The next activity, based on the 

textbook the English teacher asked 

the students to do the task and write 

to the name of the picture. The 

groups were divided into two: 1) the 

group of picture. 2) The group of the 

word. The students wrote the name 

of the pictures that available in the 

group of the word. the English 

teacher explained to the group how 

to of the task, then he tried to use 

English, otherwise some of the 

students could understand his 

explanation but some could not, so 



 

71 

 

he repeated his explanation by using 

Indonesia language, when they 

understood what they had to do, the 

teacher asked them to do their task in 

the group seriously. In this section 

the teacher divided them into five 

groups. 

The teacher asked them to finish 

the task as soon as possible not more 

than fifteen minutes. Every student in 

their group tried to find the correct 

answer as soon as possible. It is not 

more than fifteen minutes. Then the 

students were asked to stop 

discussion and asked to submit the 

task to the teacher. One student of 

one group was asked to spell those 

words. While the other listened to the 

answer. When there is mistaken the 

other groups were given a chance to 

correct it. The teacher will explain 

whether the answer are correct or 

not, in giving explanation he teacher 

said in front of class. The students 

look very interested and were 

engaged on the teacher explanation. 

When the time was over the teacher 

asked them to stop the activities and 

to study the next lesson for the next 

meeting.  

b. The class 1 (3) 

On the second time, the 

researcher observed the study at the 

class 1 (3) on Wednesday 11 

December, 2014. There were thirty 

four students in this class. From the 

observation it was obtained that the 

English teacher used guessing games 

in teaching vocabulary. 

Before the English teacher began 

in teaching, wrote some guess the 

names of object on the board. There 

were names of objects. They were: 

TV, chair, bed. After the teacher 

explained the name of object one by 

one, then teacher was asked students 

to guess the name of object to the 

teacher to spell the word orally and 

repeat the word again until they are 

clearly pronounced. The purpose of 

this activity is to focus the student‟s 

attention on the material. After that, 

the teacher, asked the students to 

write those words. Then some 

questions to the students with 

instruction. When the time was over, 

Mr.Rahmayadi asked them to stop 

doing the task. One by one the 

students submitted their task to the 

teacher.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

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CONCLUSION 

Based on the research finding, 

it‟s concluded that there were two 

kinds of techniques used by the 

participant in teaching vocabulary at 

class 1 (1 and 2), and class 1 (3),  

those were identifying picture and 

categorizing objects. 

1. The class 1 (1 and 2), the kinds of 

techniques used by the teacher 

were the identifying picture and 

categorizing object technique. 

According to the teacher, in 

choosing the technique they 

should give attention to the 

students condition and students 

needs. Many students were 

interested in using the identifying 

picture in using this technique but 

it is only a little. The students had 

high motivation toward the 

picture as one the techniques in 

the teaching English vocabulary.   

2.The class 1 (3), the teacher used 

categorizing objects technique to 

teach English vocabulary. Those 

techniques found from the 

textbook, so the teacher developed 

this technique by himself. In 

presenting English especially 

vocabulary, the teacher should be 

creative in choosing the material 

and able to stimulate the students 

interest. The students who had high 

ability in English were interested in 

using game in practice vocabulary. 

On the contrary, the students who 

had high ability in English were 

not so interested in using word 

game in learning vocabulary, 

because they find difficult in 

studying English. Although, it was 

found that the students score was 

good, but it could be concluded 

that the technique which used was 

still difficult. So the teacher should 

help the students to avoid 

misunderstanding.  



 

73 

 

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Denzin, Norman K. 1994. Handbook of Qualitative Research. California: SAGE 

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Gebhard, J. G. 2000. Teaching English as a Foreign or Second Language. America: the 

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H.Hiebert, Elfrida & L.Kamil,Michael.( 2005). Teaching & Learning Vocabulary 

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