A.

Tenses in English

1. Simple Present Tense

Verbs have forms called tenses that tell you when the action happens. If the action
happens regularly, sometimes or never, use the simple present tense. Swan says that
when we talk about permanent situations, or about things that happen regularly or all
the time (not just around now), we usually use the simple present.1

Example:

We always take a bath every day.

I go to London about three times a week.

This tense is usually used to indicate a regular or habitual action.2

2. Present Progressive (Present Continuous)

When we talk temporary continuing actions and events, which are just going on now
or around now, we usually use a present progressive tense.3

Use the following rule to form the present progressive.4

+ || + [ + ]

Example:

What are you doing?

I am travelling a lot these days.

3. Present Perfect
Use the following rule to form the present perfect.

+ + [ 3]

The present perfect is used to indicate:

1
Michael Swan, Practical English Usage Fully revised, 3rd Edition, (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 2005), p. 461
2
Michael A. Pyle and Marry Ellen Munoz Page, Cliffs TOEFL Preparation Guide, (New Delhi:
Willey Dreamtech India, 2002), p. 57
3
Op.Cit,
4
Michael A. Pyle and Marry Ellen Munoz Page, Op.Cit.
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 1) An action that happened at an indefinite time in the past.
E.g. John has traveled around the world. (we do not know when)
2) An action that happened more than once in the past.
E.g. George has seen this movie three times.
3) An action that began in the past and is still occurring in the present.
E.g. John has lived in the same house for twenty years. (He still lives there.)

4. Simple Past Tense

The simple past tense is used for a completed action that happened at one specific time
in the past. The italicized words in the previous sentence are important because they
show that simple past is not the same as past progressive or present perfect.
Example:
John went to Spain last year.
Bob bought a new bag yesterday.5

5. Past Progressive (Continuous)

Use the following rule to form the past progressive. 6

+ + [ + ]

Example:

Martha was watching television.

My father was reading newspaper.

6. Past Perfect
Use the following rule to form the past progressive.
+ + [ 3

The past perfect is usually used to indicate:

1) An action that happened before another action in the past; there usually are two
actions in the sentence.
1st Action 2nd Action

E.g. John had gone the store before he went home.

5
Michael A. Pyle and Marry Ellen Munoz Page, Op.Cit. p. 59
6
Ibid.
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2) A state which contained for a time in the past, but stopped before now.
E.g. Abdu had lived in New York for ten years before he moved to California. 7

Formulation Chart
R u m u s Ket Waktu

1. Simple S + is/am/are + Adj/Adv/N Every ., on Sundays,

Biasa S + V1 s/es + O + A always, often, usually,
S + do/does+not+V1+O+A sometimes, seldom, never
P
r 2. Continous S + is/am/are + V ing + O + A Now, at present, Look!,
Watch!, Listen!
e Sedang
s 3. Future S + will/shall + V1 + O + A Tomorrow, next ...,
e Akan S + will/shall + be + Adj/Adv/N

n
4. Perfect S + has/have + V3 + O + A Just, already, recently,
t Telah S + has/have + been + Adj/Adv/N Up to now, lately, so far
since, for

R u m u s Ket Waktu

1. Simple S + was/were + Adj/Adv/N Yesterday, last, once

Biasa S + V2 + O + A one day, once upon a time
S + did + not + V1 + O + A
P
2. Continous S + was/were + V ing + O + A When, while (kt sambung)
a dgn past simple
Sedang
s 3. Future S + would/should + V1 + O + A if (kt sambung) dlm if clause
Akan S + would/should + be + Adj/Adv/N

4. Perfect S + had + V3 + O + A After, before (kt sambung)

Telah S + has/have + been + Adj/Adv/N dgn past simple

7
Ibid.
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B. The Concept of Reading
1. Definition of Reading
Reading is a set of skills that involves making sense and deriving meaning from the printed
word. In order to read, we must be able to decode (sound out) the printed words and also
comprehend what we read.8 For second language learners there are three different elements
which impact reading: the childs background knowledge, the childs linguistic knowledge of
the target language, and the strategies or techniques the child uses to tackle the text.

Reading is a way of getting the meaning or knowledge from the printed page such as
textbooks, newspapers, magazines, novels.9 Reading is the meaningful interpretation of print
symbol. In this process the reader tries to create the meaning will be interesting by the author.

Reading is thinking, understanding and getting at the meaning behind a text.10 When the read
some text the reader will think what the author write and she/he do the take an understanding
about the meaning from the text. And when the reader try to get the meaning of the text it
will be occurred getting the comprehension of text. Comprehension is at the heart of what it
means to really read.11

According to the statements above, it can be concluded that the reading is a set of skill that
have way thinking, understanding, and getting the meaning from printed word or page sucha
as newspaper, novel, magazine etc.

C. Techniques in Reading
According to Linse, there are some techniques that can be used in reading:
1. Phonics
One of the easiest ways to begin phonics instruction is by introducing sounds and letters
that are associated with specific nouns. Some teachers believe that children should be
taught the letters and sounds of the alphabet in alphabetical order. However, other

8
Caroline T. Linse, Practical English Language Teaching Young Learners, (New York: Mcgraw-Hill,
2005), p.69
9
Team of five, 2006, Improving Reading Skill in English for University Students, Jakarta, Kencana,
10
Jennifer Servallo, 2010, Teaching Reading in Small Group, Pourtsmouth, NH: Heinemann, p. 43
11
Jennifer Servallo, Ibid.,

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 teachers, myself included, start children with the consonants that follow fairly regular
spelling patterns including: /m/, /s/, /t/, /i/, /n/, and /r/.
2. Predictable stories and pattern books
One type of story that is prominent in English-language programs is the predictable story.
The predictable story contains repetitive phrases and predictable language. Predictable
storybooks, also called pattern books, contain illustrations that help to clarify or support
the word, sentence, or pattern that is repeated in the text. Since pattern books contain the
same words and phrases, children are exposed to the same words repeated over and over
again.
3. Sight words
Sight words are high-frequency words children can recognize on sight without having to
decode the letters. The, all, an, and I are all sight words. Some sight words are especially
difficult to sound out or decode because they do not follow regular spelling patterns
right, there, took, and should Games are engaging ways to teach sight words. For
example, young learners can go through a piece of text and count how many times the
word the occurs in the text. You can also make a path-style board game with different
sight words. Children throw a dice and move spaces. Whenever they land on the sight
word, they read it aloud.
4. Names
Childrens names can be sight words. Children enjoy reading their own names. An
alternative way to call attendance is to print each childs name on a different card. You
can then show the names while children read them aloud. This technique works well with
young learners who use their own real names written with Latin letters (a, b, c,. .) or
when children use nicknames again written with English-language letters.
5. Print-rich environment
Hudelson in Linse points out that children who come from societies tilled with print are
likely to learn at a very early age that print serves different purposes or functions. Print-
rich environments encourage and invite children to develop literacy skills. In English-
language classrooms, print-rich environments contain English-language environmental
print prevalent in countries where English is the main language of communication.

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 6. Learning centers
Learning centers are stations or places within a classroom where children can work alone,
in pairs, or in small groups. You can create learning centers with environmental print
focused on specific topics.
7. Comprehension strategies
Some experts recognized the importance of teaching children strategies or techniques to
help them focus on the meaning represented by the words. Below are a number of simple
strategies that can help children improve their comprehension skills.12

D. Strategies in Teaching Vocabulary

1. Definition of Vocabulary
When we learn about English, learners will be introduced to divide language into the four
skills: listening, speaking, reading and writing then to add grammar, vocabulary and
phonology to them as components of language.13 Vocabulary is a horde of words that showed
by individual. It means that each word have mean and function depends on their word form.
According to Caroline, vocabulary is the collection of words that an individual.14 So,
whatever the words that finding is vocabulary.

As a reader or a writer, vocabulary also needed as a basis knowledge to make their activity
going on as well as they can. As a writer, the function of vocabulary is to know what the
ideas that will be write in their blank page. Then, as a reader the main function of vocabulary
is to know what the writer tells about in the written text.

According to Michael that says vocabulary is the set of words for which writer know the
meanings when the writer speaks or read orally.15 This statements also supported by Richards
and Renandya, they say that vocabulary is a core component of language and provides much

12
Ibid. p. 78-89
13
Lynne Cameron, Teaching Language to Young Learners, (New York: University Press, 2001), p. 17
14
Caroline T. Linse, Practical English Language Teaching Young Learners, (New York: Mcgraw-Hill,
2005), p. 121
15
Michael and Elfrida, Teaching and Learning Vocabulary, (London: Rouledge Press, 2005), p. 3

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 of the basis for how learners speak, listen, read and write.16 So we can assume that the four
skill which said before could not be function if learners did not mastering vocabulary.

All of vocabularies are words. Usually learning word is learning about new words and
searching the meaning of them. Word come in two forms: oral and written. Oral vocabulary
is the set of words for which we know the meanings when we speak or read orally. Print
vocabularies consist of those words for which the meaning is known when we write or read
silently. Knowledge of words also comes in two forms: receptive and productive. Receptive
vocabulary is that set of words for which an individual can assign the meaning when
listening or reading. While the productive vocabulary is set of word that an individual can
use when writing or speaking.17 This statement also supported by Hatch and Brown, they say
that vocabulary refers to a list or set of words that individual speakers of language might use.
They also stat that vocabulary is the only system involved of alphabetical order. 18 The more
vocabulary the students have, the bigger possibility to have a skill to use the language.

If the students vocabulary is limited, they will find some difficulties in using English for
communication in English. Vocabulary becomes one of the requirements for people to speak
a language, we will find the difficult to express something without vocabulary. Thorbury
says without grammar very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be
conveyed.19 We can still understand the language even if we did not know about grammar.
But, the language will tell us nothing, if we do not know anything about vocabulary.

From the statement above, we can assume that vocabulary is used to build a language, it is a
basic element in communication. So, learning vocabulary plays an important role in
understanding the language whether it is used in written or spoken. We need vocabulary to
communicate. When we want to talk, if we have limited vocabulary so, we will difficult to
convey something. That is why vocabulary called as important part in language, no language
exist without vocabulary.

16
Richards and Renandya, Methodology in Language Teaching, (New York: Cambridge University Press,
2005), p. 255
17
Ibid.
18
Evelyn Hatch and Cheryl Brown, Vocabulary, Semantics, and Language Education, (Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press, 1995), p. 1
19
Scott Thornburry, How to Teach Vocabulary, (Essex: Pearson Educational Limited, 2002), p. 3

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 According to explanation about vocabulary above, one of definition vocabulary is knowledge
of meaning of words. All of knowledge of words is vocabulary. There are many kinds of
vocabulary. Thornburry says that vocabulary includes in the category of word classes.20
Word classes are subdivision of words built around the grammatical characteristics of the
words and their use in sentences. Words are analyzed on the basis of their formation and their
use in sentences.

2. Concept of Teaching Vocabulary

In teaching vocabulary, it does not only the explanation about meaning, but also illustrating
it, and presents the vocabulary. Teaching is showing or helping someone to learn how to do
something providing with knowledge, causing to know or to understand.21 relating to
vocabulary teaching, teacher has to be careful in selecting the vocabulary that she/he will
teach. Cameron says that teaching vocabulary is focused to help learners to build up
knowledge of words in ways that will enable them to use the language differently and
successfully.22 More vocabularies the learners have, more chances they master the language.

3. Strategies in Teaching Vocabulary

Nation in Cameroon listed basic techniques by which teachers can explain the meanings of
new words, all of which can be used in to the learner classroom:

a. By demonstration or pictures
There are some kinds of using the demonstration strategy:
1) Using an object
2) Using a cut-out finger
3) Using gesture
4) Performing an action
5) Photograph
6) Drawing or diagram on the board
7) Pictures from books

20
Ibid. p. 3
21
H Douglas Brown, Teaching by Principles an Interactive Approach to Language Pedagogy Second
Edition, (San Francisco: Longman, 2001), p. 7
22
Lynne Cameron, Op.Cit. p. 75

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 b. By verbal explanation
There are some kinds of using this strategy:
1) Analytical definition (as in teacher of a protractor)
2) Putting the new word in a defining context (e.g. an ambulance takes sick people to
hospital).
3) Translating into another language.23

As an additional, using some games also can make the learning process more effective,
fun, and enjoyable. Huang in Asian EFL Journal by Huyen pointed to the effectiveness of
raising word consciousness by playing with words through games, song, and humour, and
encouraging children to recognize when they have encountered new words and notice
special characteristic of words.24

23
Lynne Cameron, Op.Cit. p. 85
24
Nguyen T.T. Huyen, Asian EFL Journal: Learning Vocabulary through Games; The Effectiveness of
Learning Vocabulary Through Games, 2012, p. 1

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