ISSN 2337-6384

JP3, Volume 1, No. 1, Pebruari

2013

IMPROVING STUDENTS VOCABULARY MASTERY USING WORD SEARCH GAME Lailatul Munawaroh (Mahasiswa Jurusan Pendidikan Bahasa Inggris FKIP Unisma)

Abstract: Vocabulary is one of the language elements. In the preliminary observation, it was found problem that most of students were lack of vocabulary. They found difficulties in using English as the target language. After memorizing a certain number of words and their meanings, sooner they forgot them. They were bored and they just had less attention and low motivation to learn. The researcher conducted this research in second grade students at MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom NGANJUK in the academic year 2011 / 2012 consisting of 42 Students. The instruments used to obtained primary data and the secondary data were vocabulary test, the teachers and the students observation sheets, and questionnaire of the respondent. The teachers and students observation sheets were analyzed using formula of percentage and mean score. The data presented in this study is qualitative data which are obtained from preliminary study, the implementation, and the reflection of the action.From the test 78% of 42 students go score 75 in which mean score was 83.8 of 42 students were able to increase their vocabulary. Considering that this study had produced sudents vocabulary mastery and the criteria of succes had achieved, thus study was conducted in two cycle. The result of test in preliminary until the test in cycle two, there is improvement the number of students who passed the test. Beside that, the students opinion is very positive and the teaching and learning process is very good. Generally, all of them are so attracted. So, it can be concluded that the word search games can be used to improve the students vocabulary mastery. Key Words: Improve, Vocabulary Mastery, Word Search Games

INTRODUCTION Vocabulary is one of the language elements. In the preliminary observation, it was found problem that most of students were lack of vocabulary. They found difficulties in using English as the target language. After memorizing a certain number of words and their meanings, sooner they forgot them. They were bored and they just had less attention and low motivation to learn. Vocabulary is one of components of English, so the English teacher has responsibility in establishing the meaning of vocabularies in the students

mind. It is not easy to be done. Sometimes, the students have difficulties in using language and they try to memorize a certain number of words and their meanings, they were forgetting. Finally, they would be bored and they just have less attention and motivation to learn it. The students vocabulary at the second grade of MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk are very limited, the score approximately under 60 for half of amount the students because they feel bored and less motivated in learning English. The 20

ISSN 2337-6384

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2013

case of this research are students have low motivation since they think English is difficult to learn. They also think that the language is not important for living in the daily life. It is seen that the people around them do not speak in English. It also makes them shy to speak in English, and they are afraid of making mistakes while speaking using the language. Then, English teacher speaks English rarely in the classroom. It does not motivate the students to imitate the habit of speaking English at school. The teaching media is not always suitable with the teaching material and method, so that it makes the students difficult to master the vocabulary, then they can not make good and meaningful sentences in written and oral form. Besides, they needs explanation in understanding the instruction when the test. The researcher found the students of second grade at MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk got low score 50 until 55. So, the researcher want to increase students vocabulary using games. The teacher uses word search game as one of the activities to improve the students vocabulary mastery. In this research, the researcher tries to find out the use of word search game in learning vocabulary. The researcher will investigate how the teacher implements word search game, to figure out the reasons behind the use of the game and to get a description about teachers and students perceptions on the use of the game. Considering the reason above, the researcher wants to give a solution especially in to improve the students vocabulary mastery, so that later the students will be able to speak in English well. The solution is by teaching vocabulary using Word Search. It gives much opportunity for the students to practice and repeat the sentence pattern and vocabulary. Beside, the Word Search is a kind of games that will make the teaching learning process more attractive than before. The students will feel fun, relaxed and enjoyed, and they will memorize the vocabulary in different way. Based on the background above, the researcher would conduct a study

to improve the vocabulary mastery of the students using Word Search. METHOD The subject of this study was 42 students at MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk in that year. This class consists of 24 boys and 18 girls. The researcher did not separate between male or female. Every student has same tests from the teacher. The strategy done by the research including the activities in introducing the idea of using games to improve vocabulary mastery, conducting the student teacher conference and how to analyze the students work. The design of this study is a classroom action research. Mc. Niff (1996:6) stated that action research is an intervention in personal practice to bring about improvement and it has a special kind of research problem. In conducting the classroom action research, the researcher used Kemmis and Mc. Taggart in which each cycle consists of four steps: planning of action, implanting of action, observing and evaluation analysis and reflection. The deals with preparing observation sheets and field note to collect the data during the assessment process as well as designing the criteria of success use in this study. After the planning of the action was finish, the next step is the implementation, the research act as the observer. The researchers observe how the research implements the games to improve students mastery on vocabulary. In the last step that is reflection, based on the result of the data analysis, the research makes reflection to judge whether this classroom action research need to be continued or not. In the next meeting, the researcher implement the revising the plan of the previous meeting. Preparing the games as learning strategies: the researcher prepares the word search as strategy in learning vocabulary mastery. Game can stimulate interesting of students in learning teaching. Here very important to make situation in the class warm and happy. There are suitable procedure to do vocabulary games (1) The teacher giving clear 21

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instruction to explaining the games rules (2) The teacher giving an example of playing the games (3) The students focus on the teacher instruction (4) Teacher giving the word search games and ask to the students to arrange the words. The classroom action research took place in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk of second grade students in the academic year 2011/ 2012, include one English teacher as researcher and forty two students. This study was conducted by interview the English teacher and the students of MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk about the problem and the difficulties in teaching and learning activity especially vocabulary. The researcher found that the students mastery in vocabulary was weak. It is shown in the percentage of the class success is 24 %. It means that the students who passed the vocabulary test on the preliminary study were 24 %, while 76 % was unsuccessful. The researcher used Classroom Action Research (CAR). The process can be seen at the cycles of the action research. In this part, the researcher prepare some instruments. They are four elements namely: preparing games, lesson plan, method, criteria of success. The criteria of success in vocabulary test are 75 % of the students in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk success doing the tests. The students can be said successful if the score on students vocabulary test are 70 as their minimum score from the maximum score is 100. In the second meeting was held on July th 12 , 2012. In this meeting, the researcher gave some tests to measure the students score again. They were given some words about school environment. Researcher made the test like matched the words with the word map technique. The form of question almost same like in the first test but different question and then they answer it. From the research, the researcher found that there are 90 % of students had passed the test and 10 % of students had failed. It was amazing score because the researcher has succeeded in changing the technique.

The result of the test in the cycle two was very satisfied. It has showed the improvement of the students. They can memorize vocabulary and answer the question correctly. Here percentage successfulness of the class uses the (% X) formula. The percentage used in this research 75% until 100 % and the successfulness of the class is 78 %. It shows that the teaching and learning process is very successful. The result of students score percentage also shows the great improvement that is 78% from100% . The researcher concludes that improving students vocabulary mastery using word search games can increase the students ability in mastering vocabulary. It means that improving students vocabulary mastery using word search games in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk is success.
FINDINGS AND DISCUSSIONS

The classroom action research took place in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk of second grade students in the academic year 2011/ 2012, include one English teacher as researcher and forty two students. This study was conducted by interview the English teacher and the students of MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk about the problem and the difficulties in teaching and learning activity especially vocabulary. In teaching and learning vocabulary, there were some problems such as: The problems of the students at MTs Pesantren Sabilil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk are they can not pronounce any word properly. The words that students can mastery very limited and it was the problem of second grade students at MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien. Finally, they got bored and they did not have attention and low motivation to learn English because they think English lesson very difficult. The researcher found that the students mastery in vocabulary was weak. It is shown in the percentage of the class success is 24 %. It means that the students who passed the vocabulary test on the preliminary study were 24 %, while 76 % was unsuccessful. The criteria of success in vocabulary test are 75 % 22

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of the students in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk success doing the tests. The students can be said successful if the score on students vocabulary test are 70 as their minimum score from the maximum score is 100. Based on the criteria of success in vocabulary test where the study can be said successful if 75 % of all students have score more than or same of 70.The first meeting researcher got data from English teacher about students score before implemented the research method. The researcher found that the percentage of the class is 67 %. It means that there are 67 % of the students passed the test, while 33 % are failed. In the second meeting the percentage used in this research 75% until 100 % and the successfulness of the class is 78 %. It shows that the teaching and learning process is very successful. The result of students score percentage also shows the great improvement that is 78% from100%. Thit is the result of the study from preliminary study, cycle one, and cycle two. In MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk the researcher used word search game as the technique of teaching vocabulary. The researcher chooses words search game technique because it would improve the students vocabulary mastery. The students had limited vocabulary and assumed that English was difficult. In cycle I the researcher give words test as the media,giving words test and ask them to match it made the students easy to memorize vocabulary. In cycle I the students didnt understood about the researcher gave game. In cycle II the researcher still used word search about environments around them and words as the media of word search game to teach the vocabulary but the researcher made it fun because the students was got point if they did it properly and the students looked interested. After using word search game technique the researcher saw that there were good responses from the students. The students were more enthusiastic in studying English. Word search games helped the students easy to understand and memorize. In addition it could be used to the vocabulary

avoid the boredom in the class. In explaining the material the researcher showed to arrange the vocabulary and made it like sentences. It could help the students to memorize the vocabulary. In general, the researcher concludes that improving students vocabulary mastery using word search games can increase the students ability in mastering vocabulary. It means that improving students vocabulary mastery using word search games in MTs Pesantren Sabillil Muttaqien Tanjunganom Nganjuk is success. CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS The ways to increase their vocabulary using word search games are by providing the real object as a media in teaching vocabulary by recount text and searching words which are related to the vacation and environments objects. The students achievement on vocabulary was far from being successful. There were only 24% of 42 students who passed at the vocabulary test in the preliminary study. To improve the students vocabulary mastery, the researcher taught them using word search games in a classroom action research. The advantages of using word search games in teaching vocabulary for the students are: increasing the students memory about the vocabulary given, increasing the understanding of the students and decreasing the monotonous teaching learning process especially in teaching vocabulary. In the first cycle, the score of the students who passed the vocabulary test wasnt success. There were 67% of students who passed the vocabulary test. It is indicated percentage of the cycle I is unsuccessful. Because of the weakness of the cycle one was planned the research goes to second cycle. It was implemented during two meetings. In the second cycle, it was found improving vocabulary mastery using word search games motivated the students to learn more effectively through their active participation in using English. The result of the study in the second cycle, there were 78 % students who passed the vocabulary test. It was greater the level criteria of success. The criteria of success stated that 75% of students 23

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in the class must get the test score on vocabulary mastery minimum 70. Based on the data above, it is clear that the word search games can improve students vocabulary mastery. Based on the conclusion above, there are some suggestions in a purpose of enriching students vocabulary mastery. They are as follow: Suggestion for English Teacher of second grade at MTs PSM Tanjunganom Nganjuk. Use word search game as the first media in teaching and learning vocabulary or other language components, since other games can motivate the students to learn more effectively and participate more actively. Suggestion for the Researcher. This study can be used as the contribution to do further research, especially in dealing with the study on vocabulary mastery with the different subject and different design. It is expected that the other researchers will develop this research using different perspective and different object. In other words, they can use this research as the reference complete their research paper.

Harmer Jeremy. 2007. The practice of English Language Teaching. Kemmis and Taggart 1996. Action Research: A short modern technology. Victoria: Deakin University Press. Krashen, Stephen D. 1981. Second Language Acquisition and Second Language Learning. Kramer, Wolfgang 2000. What Is a Game? http://www.thegamesjournal.com/About .shtml Retrieved on June 26, 2009. O'Bannon, B. (2008). "What is a Lesson Plan?". Innovative Technology Center The University of Tennessee. http://itc.utk.edu/~bobannon/lesson_pla n.html. Retrieved May 17, 2011. Retrieved on June 26, 2009. Enhancing English as a Second Language Students Vocabulary Knowledge. Rosenbaum, Catherine (2001). A word Map for middle school a tool for effective vocabulary instruction. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy Schmite and Mc Carthy. 1997. Vocabulary, Oxford University Press. Gnoinska, Uberman. 1998. The Use of Games for vocabulary Presentation and Revision.

REFERENCES Arikunto Suharsimi, Prof, Dr. 1998, Prosedur Penelitian Suatu Pendekatan Praktek. Jakarta. Carl, Gligman. 1992. Definition of CAR Classroom Action Research. New York: Cambridge University. Dr. Charles A. Wood. 2007. Structure Mapping Theory as Formalism for Instructional Game Design & Assessment Gwyn Mettetal. 2001. The What, Why and How of Classroom Action Research. Hafield. cited in Fauziati, Endang. 2002. Teaching of English as a Foreign Language (TEFL). Hornby A.S.2000. Oxford Advance Dictionary of Current English. London: Oxford University Press (Brassell, Danny & Lena Furtado 2008:118).

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