Types of Vocabulary

Nation (1997: 17) has divided vocabulary in the specific reference, such a word. They are receptive vocabulary and productive vocabulary. Receptive Vocabulary: knowing a word involves being able to recognize it when it is heard (What is the sound like?) or when it is seen (What does it look like?) and having an expectation of what grammatical pattern the word will occur. This includes being able to distinguish it from word with a similar form and being able to judge if the word form sounds right or look right.

Productive Vocabulary: knowing a word involves being able to pronounce the word, how to write and to spell it, how to use it in grammatical pattern along with the word usually collocates with it, it also involves not using the word too often if it is typically a low frequency word and using it in a suitable situation using the word to stand for the meaning it represents and being able to think of suitable substitutes for the word.

 Ann and Field (2002: 24) classify Vocabulary into two terms. They are active vocabulary and passive vocabulary. Active vocabulary refers to items the learner can use appropriately in speaking or writing and it is also called as productive vocabulary, although, in fact, it is more difficult to put into practice. It means that to use the productive vocabulary, the students are supposed to know how to pronounce it well, they must know and be able to use grammar of the target language, they are also hoped to be familiar with collocation and understand the connotation meaning of the words. This type is often used in speaking and writing skill.

 Passive vocabulary refers to a language items that can be recognized and understood in the context of reading or listening and also called as receptive vocabulary. Passive vocabulary or comprehension consists of words comprehended by the people, when they read and listen. From the explanations above, we know that every expert in every book has different way in classifying the kinds of vocabulary, because every person has different ways in showing and telling their opinions and ideas.