Journal on Education

Volume 05, No. 03, Maret-April 2023, pp. 9654-9661

E-ISSN: 2654-5497, P-ISSN: 2655-1365
Website: http://jonedu.org/index.php/joe

Using Word Wall Website As A Strategy To Improve Students’

Vocabulary Mastery

Umar1, Rosnani Abdul Rahman2, Pujalinda Mandarsari3, Mawarwati4, Syaifuddin Amir5

1, 4, 5
Universitas Sulawesi Barat, Jalan Prof. Dr. Baharuddin Lopa, S.H, Talumung, Kabupaten Majene, Sulawesi Barat
2
Universitas Negeri Yogyakarta English Dapartment, Jl. Colombo Yogyakarta No.1, Karang Malang, Caturtunggal, Kec.
Depok, Kabupaten Sleman, Daerah Istimewa Yogyakarta
3
Akademi keperawatan YPPP Wonomulyo, Jl. Gatot Soebroto No.3, Sidodadi, Kec. Wonomulyo, Kabupaten Polewali
Mandar, Sulawesi Barat
umar@unsulbar.ac.id

Abstract
Vocabulary is one of important aspect before learning skill of English. Because of the students lack of
vocabulary, the teacher should use a strategy to solve the problem. One of the strategies is using word wall
website. This research aims to know the significant influence between the use of word wall website improve
students’ vocabulary mastery. This research is done by using quantitative method with quasi experimental
design. From the data analysis computed by using SPSS, then as the basis for decision that h0 is rejected and h1
is accepted. Based on the result of the research that has been done by the writer, the researcher concluded that
using word wall website has a significant effect in improving students’ vocabulary mastery.
Keywords: vocabulary mastery, word wall website.

Abstrak
Vocabulary adalah salah satu aspek terpenting sebelum mempelajari keterampilan bahasa Inggris. Karena
kurangnya kosa kata siswa, guru harus menggunakan strategi untuk memecahkan masalah. Salah satu
strateginya adalah menggunakan situs web dinding kata. Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahui pengaruh
yang signifikan antara penggunaan website word wall terhadap peningkatan penguasaan kosa kata siswa.
Penelitian ini dilakukan dengan menggunakan metode kuantitatif dengan desain eksperimen semu. Dari analisis
data yang dihitung dengan menggunakan SPSS, maka sebagai dasar pengambilan keputusan bahwa h0 ditolak
dan h1 diterima. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian yang telah dilakukan oleh penulis, peneliti menyimpulkan bahwa
penggunaan website word wall berpengaruh signifikan dalam meningkatkan penguasaan kosa kata siswa.
Kata Kunci: penguasaan kosakata, situs dinding kata

Copyright (c) 2023 Umar, Rosnani Abdul Rahman, Pujalinda Mnadarsari, Mawarwati, Syaifuddin Amir
Corresponding author: Umar
Email Address: umar@unsulbar.ac.id (Jl. Prof. K. H. Zainal Abidin Fikri, Palembang, Sumsel)
Received 02 February 2023, Accepted 15 February 2023, Published 15February 2023

INTRODUCTION
Vocabulary is a basic aspect that must be mastered before mastering English language skills,
vocabulary is used to talk about ideas in communicating so that the students can know the information
well. Vocabulary is the most important language aspect, it based on Saputri (2017). It is the primary
step for the students if they need to attain their objective in learning English aptitude.
Furthermore, vocabulary is basic to English dialect because without having a sufficient
vocabulary, the learners will have difficulty in understanding others’ means or expressing their ideas
(Putri & Wahyuni, 2019) In fact, most students in Indonesia have many difficulties learning English,
especially for mastering vocabulary. Vocabulary is needed by someone to understand reading, write a
text or speak it well.
Based on the previous study, the researcher concludes that vocabulary is a crucial component
in learning English, without vocabulary the student cannot know and know the material well.
Using Word Wall Website As A Strategy To Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery, Umar, Rosnani Abdul Rahman,
Pujalinda Mnadarsari, Mawarwati, Syaifuddin Amir 9655

Therefore, the students must be aware of the vocabulary. The students also have a lack of interest in
learning English and they need media to improve their interest.
Learning vocabulary is important for learners, as Sipayung (2018) says “Without grammar
very little can be conveyed, without vocabulary nothing can be conveyed.” It means that mastering
vocabulary is needed by the students because it will be hard to say something without mastering
grammar and without mastering vocabulary there is nothing to say. Teaching vocabulary is not easy,
the teacher must pay attention to the media he uses in teaching vocabulary, whether the media is
effective or not. Media is something that can deliver information and support English teaching-
learning activity effectively (Sudiran & Prasetiyowati, 2014). Then, mastering vocabulary is not easy
because many factors make a word difficult to learn. (Adipramono, 2013)states that some factors
make words difficult, such as pronunciation, spelling, length, complexity, grammar, meaning, range,
connotation, and idiomaticity. Good mastery of vocabulary terms supports the dominance of every
language skill, both receptive (Listening & Reading), as well as productive (Speaking & Writing). It
can be seen that learning vocabulary is important for mastering language skills as well. Vocabulary
has poly aspects. Nugroho, Josephus Setyo; Nurkamto, Joko; Sulistyowati(2012) also states that the
aspects in vocabulary mastery include pronunciation, spelling, grammar, collocation, aspects of
meaning, and word formation. There are many examples or media tactics that can be applied to
English vocabulary pedagogy, one of which is word wall tactics. Word wall media, especially word
wall websites, can be a good way to make pedagogy and learning methods more interesting and fun.
Due to their lack of vocabulary, students find it difficult to understand reading, understand the
meaning based on someone's spoken language, compose English text, and communicate in English,
according to observations. Students struggle to remember terms, spell them correctly, and understand
what they mean. The terms must be understood by the students.
Based on the researcher's pre-observation in SMPN 2 Majene, the researcher finds that it the
students difficult to master English Vocabulary. In doing their exercise, the students cannot answer
the questions that have been given by the teacher. Even, the students don’t know what is the purpose
of the questions. They couldn’t express their ideas in spoken or writing. Because the students have
lack vocabulary mastery. Furthermore, the teacher's method of teaching English appears to be quite
repetitive; the teacher employs the same strategy, such as the usage of a handbook or translating the
word by looking at the dictionary.
Concerning the preceding scenario, the researcher mentions the word wall website as one of
the tactics in student vocabulary pedagogy. A word wall is a systematically organized vocabulary
development that is shown on the classroom wall using a huge alphabet. (Cleaver, 2018) a wall is
dedicated to displaying high-frequency words (these could be sight words or words that are used a lot
in your class) that are important for the students to know and use. Word Wall is media content that
should be used instead of just displayed or viewed. This media can be designed to enhance learning
and group activities and also involve the students in the creation and activity of its use. Quizzes,
9656 Journal on Education, Volume 05, No. 03, Maret-April 2023, hal. 9654-9661

matchmaking, pairing, anagrams, word randomization, word search, grouping, and other learning
media applications can all be created using this website. Surprisingly, they can download materials
and print them on paper in addition to having online access to media consumers.
According to the study, it could be the reason for the researcher why researcher decide to use
the word wall website as the media to enrich students' vocabulary. The researcher thinks that the word
wall media is the effective media to enrich students' vocabulary mastery and this media is so
interesting for teachers and students too. Because of the reasons and previous studies, the researcher
decides to use word wall website as strategy to enrich students’ vocabulary mastery. The title of this
research is “Using Wordwall Website as A Strategy to Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery” the
subject of this research is a student in Junior High School.
Word Wall Website
Cranberry in Ritonga (2019) states that a word wall is a group of words that are displayed on
a wall, bullet-in board, chalkboard, or whiteboard in a classroom. According to Wagstaff word wall is
reported to offer “an interactive, ongoing, display or fords and parts of words, used to teach spelling,
reading and writing strategies, letter-sound correspondence and more”.
Word Wall is a collection of vocabulary that is organized systematically shown with large
letters and taped on the wall of a classroom. (Cleaver, 2018) a wall is dedicated to displaying high-
frequency words (these could be sight words or words that are used a lot in your class) that are
important for the students to know and use.
The word wall website is considered very interesting and not boring for students. This
website-based application can be used to create learning media such as quizzes, matchmaking,
pairing, anagrams, word randomization, word search, grouping, etc. Interestingly, in addition to
providing users with access to the media they have created online, they can also download the
material and print it on paper. According to Lewis, (2017) Word wall is an online tool for designing
study exercises that is completely free. Word wall media is very helpful for researchers in enriching
vocabulary mastery.
Word wall website is one strategy to provide learning that will make students happy to learn.
Through the media word wall is not only emphasized on just understanding vocabulary can also be
used to train students' understanding in defining a word. By applying the word wall website, students
can remember the vocabulary without feeling that they are very serious in studying. There are several
kinds that the researcher use in this research, such as match up, find the match, unjumble, matching
pairs, group sort, word search, labeled diagram and crossword.
Definition of Vocabulary
The more words students know well and can use, the more meaning they can communicate in
a wide variety of circumstances”. Coxhead (2015) stated that “vocabulary is a central part of the
language. The many definitions of vocabulary are explained in the preceding description. Based on
the previous argument, the writer believes that vocabulary is the most crucial aspect of learning
Using Word Wall Website As A Strategy To Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery, Umar, Rosnani Abdul Rahman,
Pujalinda Mnadarsari, Mawarwati, Syaifuddin Amir 9657

English; without it, students will struggle to communicate effectively in English. Reading, speaking,
writing, and listening are all included. In this research, the researcher will be focused on the first type,
word classes, and daily vocabulary also.

METHOD
Respondents
This research was conducted at SMPN 2 Majene, with a population in the research are 2
classes, namely VIII-A and Class VIII-B that each class have 27 students. In this research, the
researcher used random sampling as the technique. It was related to probability sampling. The
researcher choose students from eight grade as the sample whom widely spread from 6 classes of
eight grade students by giving them the number 1 until 6 on the paper that were suitable to the total of
classes and random sampling was done by lottery. below is the result of pre test and post test of the
students.
Table 1. Result of Pre-test and Post-test
EXPERIMENTAL CLASS CONTROL CLASS
NO NAME Pre-test Post-test NAME Pre-test Post-test
1 Student 1 64 84 Student 1 56 80
2 Student 2 48 88 Student 2 72 80
3 Student 3 56 84 Student 3 84 84
4 Student 4 44 88 Student 4 88 76
5 Student 5 60 86 Student 5 72 76
6 Student 6 60 88 Student 6 24 84
7 Student 7 60 88 Student 7 64 84
8 Student 8 64 84 Student 8 76 24
9 Student 9 32 84 Student 9 88 84
10 Student 10 48 88 Student 10 88 68
11 Student 11 44 84 Student 11 88 76
12 Student 12 68 88 Student 12 72 80
13 Student 13 84 96 Student 13 76 60
14 Student 14 40 80 Student 14 56 68
15 Student 15 48 84 Student 15 56 84
16 Student 16 40 88 Student 16 56 64
17 Student 17 56 84 Student 17 56 84
18 Student 18 52 84 Student 18 36 56
19 Student 19 56 88 Student 19 48 56
20 Student 20 72 90 Student 20 84 56
9658 Journal on Education, Volume 05, No. 03, Maret-April 2023, hal. 9654-9661

21 Student 21 68 88 Student 21 96 96
22 Student 22 64 88 Student 22 80 80
23 Student 23 40 76 Student 23 44 84
24 Student 24 40 76 Student 24 68 36
25 Student 25 80 90 Student 25 68 84
26 Student 26 60 88 Student 26 64 76
27 Student 27 48 76 Student 27 72 80
Research Instrument
The instrument used to collect the data in this research was a test that consists of pre-test,
treatment, and post-test. The test was one of the research instruments that the researcher applied,
firstly the researcher gave the students pre-test consist 25 questions. There are 10 questions for
multiple choice with four options; a, b, c, and d. Then 5 questions for pairing the word,arrange the
word and guess the meaning of the word.
Procedures
The present study was conducted from March to April 2022. The first meeting was dedicated
to carrying out the pre-test for experimental and control group. In the second meeting to six meeting.
The researcher was performing the teaching and learning process by using the word wall website in
teaching English, the researcher created an activity in word wall website, copy the link of the activity
and gave the link to students. She ask the students to finish the activity in word wall website. Such as
fill in the blank, match the word, crossword, and guest the meaning of the word. Each performance
was followed by feedbacks and evaluations. In the last meeting, the researcher gave post-test to the
students for comparing their vocabulary mastery after conduct the treatment.
Data Analysis Technique
In this research, the researcher used a statistical method as a technique to analyze the data,
because the researcher aimed to find out what is the significant effect of using website in English
Learning Process. The researcher used N-Gain Score to analyze the data. The researcher will analyze
the result after obtaining the pre-test and post-test score. This test was performed to establish whether
or not the treatment is effective.
Mann Whitney Test was a non-parametric test used to determine the difference in the median of 2
independent groups if the data variable scale determines it was ordinal or interval/ratio but not
normally distributed.

RESULT AND DISCUSSION

The aim of this research is to know the significant influence between the use of word wall
website in improving students’ vocabulary mastery on the second grade students at SMPN 2 Majene.
Normality Test
Using Word Wall Website As A Strategy To Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery, Umar, Rosnani Abdul Rahman,
Pujalinda Mnadarsari, Mawarwati, Syaifuddin Amir 9659

Normality test was the test on data to find out whether the data is regularly distributed or not.
In this research, the researcher used the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test of α = 0,05. The result of the
normality test was presented as follow.
Table 2. Normality Test
Group Kolmogorov-Smirnova Shapiro-Wilk
Statistic df Sig. Statistic df Sig.
Treatment
.074 27 .200* .974 27 .716
Ngain_Persen Group
Control Group .257 27 .000 .844 27 .001
Based on the output above, the Shapiro-Wilk sig value was obtained with N-gain data for
treatment class is 0.074 > 0.05, it means that the data is normally distributed. Meanwhile, N-gain data
for the control class is 0.001 <0.05,it means that the data is not normally distributed.
Homogenity Test
The test of homogeneity was done after the normality test. Data is aid to be homogeneous is
significance is greater than 0.05. The test of homogenity of variances was employed to test the
homogeneity. The result of homogeneity test is presented in the table below:
Table 3. Data of Homogenity Test
Ngain_Persen
Levene Statistic df1 df2 Sig.
39.647 1 52 .000
Based on the output it can be seen that the value of sig. of 0.000 <0.05. so it can be concluded
that the data has a non-homogeneous variance.
Hypothesis Testing
Mann-Whitney Test
Mann Whitney Test is a non-parametric test used to determine the difference in the median of
2 independent groups if the data variable scale determines it is ordinal or interval/ratio but not
normally distributed.
Table 4. The Result of Mann Whitney Test
Ranks
Group N Mean Rank Sum of Ranks
Treatment Group 27 38.44 1038.00
Ngain_Persen Control Group 27 16.56 447.00
Total 54

Table 5. Result of Test Statistics

Test Statisticsa
Ngain_Persen
Mann-Whitney U 69.000
Wilcoxon W 447.000
Z -5.116
Asymp. Sig. (2-tailed) .000
9660 Journal on Education, Volume 05, No. 03, Maret-April 2023, hal. 9654-9661

𝐻0 = Using the Word wall website is not effective to enrich the students’ vocabulary mastery.
𝐻1 = Using the Word wall website is effective to enrich the students’ vocabulary mastery.
Testing criteria, if things > table and sig value <0.05, H0 is rejected and H1 is accepted.
Based on the output, the Asymp value is known. Sig. (2-tailed) at 0.000<0.05, then as the
basis for decision that h0 is rejected and h1 is accepted. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of the
Word wall Website is effective in improving students’ vocabulary mastery.

CONCLUSION
Based on the result of using word wall website as a strategy in teaching English vocabulary
that conducted at the second grade of SMPN 2 Majene, the researcher concluded that there was a
significant effect in students’ vocabulary mastery. It can be proven from the finding which shows the
difference the mean of pre-test and post-test in experimental group. The mean of the post-test scores
was higher than pre-test scores. The mean of post-test was 85.56 while mean of pre-test was 55.41.
The further support based on Mann-Whitney Test result shows that the difference the two means is
significant. the Asymp value is known. Sig. (2-tailed) at 0.000<0.05, then as the basis for decision that
h0 is rejected and h1 is accepted. Thus, it can be concluded that the use of the Word wall Website is
effective in enriching students’ vocabulary mastery. Because of that, word wall website as a strategy
is one effective media used in teaching vocabulary for beginner level student.

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