The Use of Minimal Pairs in Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery of The Fifth Year Students of SDN 018 Rumbai Pesisir

Abstract

Vocabulary plays the most important part in learning a foreign language especially in the early stage of elementary school. Without knowing the vocabulary,students will not be able in the four language skills, such as speaking, reading,listening and writing. The students’ lack of vocabulary make students cannotcommunicate their ideas as clearly as they would have to. The fifth year students havedifficulty to follow English learning if they do not have enough English vocabulary.According to guideline of English teaching, elementary students should master 500words. Students are not able to construct, even, a simple sentence consisting ofsubject and predicate. Students are also not be able to pronounce a word correctly,they pronounce a word based on what they see. According to the writer’s observationin the classroom, while teacher explains the lesson, the students prefer to dosomething else such as drawing, writing and talking to their partner. To use minimalpair exercises as vocabulary development, the writer represented the words in eachminimal pairs to teach or reinforce the meaning of vocabulary while practicing thepronunciation of the words. Students can also put the words in meaningful contextsentences. The result of the research shows the students’ improvement after usingminimal pairs.