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CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
There are many elements in language, one of them is vocabulary. Nowadays, people concern vocabulary as important element of language. As what
Zimmer Man stated in James Coady: 1997, vocabulary is considered one of the most important aspects of second language learning and priority was placed on
developing a scientific and rational basis for selecting the vocabulary content of language courses
Learning vocabulary is important because to be able to speak, write, and listen we have to know adequate vocabulary first. Peoples across the world have
the strong feelings that the lack of vocabulary mastery can impede the process of English learning. They found problems in learning language that related to the
lack of vocabulary. The problems are: 1 cannot speak English fluently, 2 easy to forget new words learned recently, 3 tend to use the same idiomatic expressions
to express different sort of things, 4 sometimes it is hard to find the correct word to say Thornbury, 2002:13. There are also other problems occurs related to the
lack of vocabulary mastery as quoted from Handayani’s thesis 2009, the problems are: 1 the problems in catching words or sentences which were said, 2
the problems in understanding meaning of words.
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The importance of learning vocabulary inspires the Indonesian government to improve English learning system especially in vocabulary. This quotation
below suggests that English should be given to the students of elementary level: “ …..memilih dan menerapkan bahasa Inggris sebagai mata pelajaran muatan
local pilihan kabupaten untuk sekolah dasar. Untuk sementara diberikan di kelas IV, V, VI “. GBPP Muatan Lokal Bhs. Inggris, 2004 .
Despite the attention given to English language learning by the government, there are still some problems found in English language learning. These problems
also happen to the students of SD Negeri Cengklik II Surakarta. It can be seen from the mark the students get on the last semester examination. The mean of
their mark in the last semester examination is 5.82. It is considered as bad mark, because the passing grade of the students in this school is 5.
The phenomenon above might be caused by various things. Based on the interview with the teacher herself, she said that in the teaching and learning
process she usually gives a list of words that should be found the meaning by the students in limited time. Normally, it is hard for people to learn new thing in this
case new words in such of limited time by only consulting to a dictionary. From the pre-research observation it can be seen that students felt bored with the
teacher’s technique in delivering material. They saw English lesson as something difficult and boring. Sometimes they did not pay attention to the lesson. They
played with other students or sometimes they did nothing. Then, the students found difficulties in pronouncing, spelling, and understanding new vocabularies.
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It seemed that they really found difficulties to remember and grasp the meaning of words easily.
Besides, in this elementary school as most elementary schools in Indonesia, English language learning is given to students once a week with only 60 minutes
for each meeting. It is not sufficient considering English is a foreign language not the native language of the students.
To solve this kind of problems, it is a need to give treatments to students that will make them enjoy the vocabulary learning and learn it fast.
In this research the writer tried to give certain method which is teaching vocabulary through board game. But why it is game? As purposed by Scott
February, 2009 there are some areas can be improved by practicing game. First,
Cognitive: Games can assist memory, problem-solving, deduction and planning
skills. Second, Language: Many games can improve vocabulary skills. Third, Math:
Children can practice counting, learn to recognize number and engage in
math with game play. Forth, Social: Games with multiple players encourage
social skills and communication skills. The preset rules also teach children how to share with others, take turns and win in a fair competition or loose without a
tantrum. Fifth, Motor: A number of games provide opportunities to sharpen fine
and gross motor skills such as hand and eye coordination, balance and the ability
to thread a shoelace. And Sixth, Sensory processing: Some games help stimulate
senses such as playing with water balloons, guessing objects by touch, singing games or playing Musical Chairs may improve sensory disorders by engaging
different senses during game play
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Games also help the teacher to create contexts in which the language is useful and meaningful Wright: 1984: 1. Suyanto 2007: 117 also stated that
“anak bermain karena mereka senang. Anak belajar melalui permainan. Pada saat mereka bermain bersama, anak berinteraksi satu dengan yang lain”. From
this statement Suyanto want to say that beside games make a fun learning and teaching atmosphere, games also train the learners to communicate with others.
Because there are so many kinds of games based on the problems and reasons above, the writer proposes one of them as teaching techniques as the
solution for the problem of learning vocabularies. The teaching technique, which is suitable to overcome the problems, is board games. Board games provide all
materials needed by the students such as the exercises to improve spelling, word understanding, pronunciation, and so on. Board games can also be an alternative
technique of teaching to make the students feel fun in learning English vocabularies. The teacher also gets benefits to conduct the lesson effectively.
According to Elizabeth Stover at www.ehow.com, board games improve vocabulary just by playing them. For example, scrabble and boggle games that
included to board games are two such games that improve vocabulary because of the nature of the game. Beside the fact that board games naturally improve
vocabulary, board games are cheap. You can create your own games by repurposing old game boards or creating your own using a word processing
program. Kartikadewi on her thesis at www.karya-ilmiah.um.ac.id said that board
games are more effective than material memorizing because it gives chance to the
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students to learn vocabulary by knowing the real thing by pictures. Wright 1984: 81 also stated that he believes that the learners will enjoy and derive value from
the board games. Due to the facts above, the writer is interested in carrying out a study on
“Improving Students’ Vocabulary Mastery through Board Games“A Classroom Action Research at the Fourth Grade Students of SD Negeri Cengklik II,
Surakarta in 20092010 Academic Year
B. Statement of the Problem
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