THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING VOCABULARY BY USING PUPPET AT ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
This chapter covers the characteristic of elementary school students, general concept of vocabulary, the definition of puppets, the definition of media, and action research.
2.1 Characteristics of Elementary School Students
Dealing with the development of curriculum in Indonesia, teaching English to young learners has become important in recent years. However, it is not always an easy task to teach young learner. There are many considerations that should be taken on how to teach and what to teach. It is fact that children are different from adult physically and mentally.
The age has become a major factor to formulate decisions on teaching students. The students who are considered as young learners enjoy studying language through loads of cheerful activities in a bright and colorful room. While adult are expected to use abstract notions since they can think rationally. As Harmer (2001:40) affirms that adults often encompass clear understanding of why they are learning and what they wish to comprehend out of it.
Teaching elementary school students is not the same as teaching adult because it possess different characteristic as maintained by Helay (1987:49): Unlike adults, children are not self-motivated and do not have an immediate need to learn English. They are not concerned with job or university degree that requires knowledge of English. Their world is their daily games, events of interest to them, new knowledge that may come across and question that their inquisition minds may ask.
In general, the elementary school students are the children at the age between six up to twelve years old which are enthusiastic to know and learn everything. Harmer (2001: 38) states some general characteristic of children. There are (a) they respond to meaning even if they do not understand the words, (b) they often learn indirectly than directly, (c) their understanding comes not just from the explanation, but also from what they see hear and crucially have a chance to touch and interact with, (d) they generally display an enthusiasm for???
