Teaching strategies in enhancing a variety of vocabulary use in students’ english writing

Vocabulary is one of the important components that students should be aware of. Understanding a variety of vocabularies will help learners communicate or construct the sentences easily. It is the ingredient or material for people to communicate. The more vocabulary students have, the more likely they will be able to communicate. To increase students’ vocabulary, teachers should find a suitable strategy. This research aims to investigate teachers’ strategies in enhancing students’ vocabulary use in English writing and the challenges teachers encounter when applying particular strategies. To explore this issue, this study used a qualitative design by interviewing three English Teachers at MTSN 3 Mojokerto. The results indicated that teachers’ used six strategies to improve students’ vocabulary in English writing: practicing language in the classroom, memorizing vocabulary in every meeting, using multimedia (video or movie), using dictionary, using games and pictures. From the mentioned strategies, teachers believed that using games was the most effective strategy to facilitate students’ vocabulary in English writing. Even though teachers apply the six strategies, they were unable to apply them smoothly. The challenges they encountered, for example, students were shy to show their abilities, did not know the meaning of words, and felt bored. This finding indicates that teachers should be creative in assisting students to learn the vocabulary by applying a variety of methods, and are willing to improve their teaching. Students can maximize their learning if the teachers are eager to help them.