a. “Vocabulary Memory Game. This is a kind of game that is played by using a set of cards. There are some cards which contain of the definition of words
that have to be matched with the words cards. b. Crossword Puzzles. This is a kind of game which there are some questions
that must be answered by putting the suitable answers into the overlapped squares either horizontally or vertically.
c. Word search. This is a kind of game which there are some definitions of the words asked as the clues and they provide the random letters that have to be
arranged orderly to answer the words asked in the clues. d. Game Show. This is a kind of game that requires the students to work in
groups and they must answer some questions related with vocabulary which given by the teacher by ringing a buzzer as fast as possible”.
Poirier, 2014:1 In this research, the researcher focused on the use of Crossword Puzzles to teach
vocabulary to the students. Since there were some research findings that proved that using Crossword Puzzles could improve the students’ vocabulary achievement.
Furthermore, it could help the students easier in learning vocabulary because they learned the vocabulary in a fun way.
2.6 Crossword Puzzles
2.6.1 The Definitions of Crossword Puzzles
According to Cheryl 2012:1 Crossword Puzzles are a group of words that are arranged horizontally and vertically. Further, Spivey and Loraine 2010:1 define
Crossword Puzzles as one kind of puzzle games that require players to use a clue to figure out a specific word and write each letter in the corresponding squares that
overlap with other words in the puzzle .
In other words, it can be said that Crossword Puzzles is an arrangement of numbered squares to be filled in with words, a letter to
each square so that a letter appearing in a word placed horizontally is usually also part of a word placed vertically.
Crossword Puzzle is one kind of game which can be applied to teach vocabulary. This is in line with Spivey and Loraine 2010:1 who state that
Crossword Puzzles can be helpful for developing and learning vocabulary. Therefore,
the researcher decided to use the Crossword Puzzles as a game to teach vocabulary to the students in this research.
2.6.2 The Classification of Crossword Puzzles
According to Karim and Hasbullah 1986:2.34, there are two types of Crossword Puzzles, as follows.
a. The first is Crossword Puzzles which use clues in the form of pictures. This is a kind of Crossword Puzzles that ask the students to find the answer based on
the picture. Then, put the answer in the suitable squares. The example of Crossword Puzzles which use the clues in the form of pictures taken from
www.thetripclip.com is as the following:
Household Items
1. 2.
3. 4.
5.
6. 7.
8. 9.
Across Down
2 3
1 2
6 9
4 5
7 8
Answer key
1. B 2.P
I L
L O
W A
H 3.T
O O
T H
4.B R
U 5.S
H H
N E
I T
E D
N U
K 6.B
R O
O 7.M
8.K 9.C
O M
P U
T E
R Y
b. The second is Crossword Puzzles which use clues in the form of phrases or sentences. This is the kind of Crossword Puzzles which ask the students to
find the answer based on the phrases or the sentences, then, put the answer in the correct squares. The example of Crossword Puzzles which use clues in the
form of phrases or sentences taken from www.thetripclip.com is as follows:
Transportation
1. 2.
3. 4.
5. 6.
7. 8.
Across Down
3. A bike with a motor 4.You pay someone to drive you in this
6. has an engine and a caboose 7. Rides on water
8. you can drive one when you turn 16 years old
1. A pilot flies it, it has wings 2. A pilot flies it, it has rotor blades
5. It’s like a car but holds more people, some are mini.
6. Some of these are pick-up, dump, or delivery.
Answer key
In this research, the type of Crossword Puzzles that was used was the Crossword Puzzles with clues in the form of phrases or sentences. The researcher
chose that kind of Crossword Puzzles in order to make the students easier to understand the meaning of the clues to fill in the Crossword Puzzles.
2.6.3 The Procedures of Using Crossword Puzzles in Vocabulary Teaching
