Figure 2.4 The Home Page of ELTGallery
In order to set a situation in which the learners were conditioned to collaborate with some other peers, around five learners received the same set of
vocabulary lists used to complete the puzzle. Hence, they could cooperate with their peers to solve the puzzle. In doing so, they could not only get the correct
answers but also enrich their vocabulary strategies in that they could also learn the other strategies applied by other peers. As a result, they could enhance their
vocabulary learning. The display of online crossword puzzle is presented in figure 2.5 as follows:
Figure 2.5 An Online Crossword Puzzle in ELTGallery
Online crossword puzzles could be used as the review of the words which the learners had just learned and memorized. The puzzles could also function as
the facility to have repetition for the learners inasmuch as they have to repeat completing the puzzle whenever they failed to solve it. Furthermore, doing online
crossword puzzle could train the learners to manage their learning progress since they had to complete and submit a puzzle each week. When they did not submit
that week, it means that they had to submit doubled puzzles in the following week. It was also possible for them to solve more than a puzzle in a week. If they
did it, they could finish doing all of the crosswords puzzles assigned earlier than the due to time. It could be beneficial for them in that they could use the time to
do the other tasks of this course or even other courses.
B. REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
This section provides the overview of four prior studies conducting on learning vocabulary using crossword puzzles which are relevant to this study. By
relating this study to the certain relevant prior studies, it may help to know the position of this study inasmuch as it certainly may support or argue what have
been found by the previous researches. Accordingly, it is expected that this study may also support the development to the next studies.
The first study was conducted by Harahap 2013. This study was aimed to improve students‘ vocabulary achievement on grade eight by applying crossword
puzzles. In order to get the findings, she conducted classroom action research which was implemented to students on grade eight of SMPN 35 Medan.
The study involved 38 students of grade VIII of SMPN 35 Medan and was conducted in two
cycles. It is consisted of two kinds of instruments namely quantitative and qualitative data. For quantitative data was used vocabulary test which was
teachers‘ made, and for qualitative data were used diary notes and interview sheets. Based on the data and data analysis, it can be seen that there was an
improving of students‘ score in cycle I and cycle II, which can be approved from the mean of each test, that were 65.90, 73.92, and 81,25. After applying the
crossword puzzle, it can be seen that that vocabulary achievement of the students in SMPN 35 Medan increased. Meanwhile, the result of the diary notes in cycle I
was the students was still strange with the new strategy that was used. They focused only their mind to the instruction and felt afraid to do the games wrongly,
but in cycle II their interest to the games increased. They gave good response during the teaching
– learning process, looked so interesting and used the time effectively in learning with crossword puzzle. It showed the improvement in
response and participation in cycle II. The research result shows that the application of crossword puzzles in teaching English to learn vocabulary is
effective to improv e the students‘ achievement.
The second study was done collaboratively by Njoroge, Ndung‘u, and Gathigia 2013. This study focused on the application of crossword puzzles in
the teaching of vocabulary in English as Second Language ESL classrooms. They conducted experimental research in Ngorano Secondary School, an
institution in Nyeri Country Kenyan. It was found that the p value is .491 which is greater t
han α = .05, hence we reject the null hypothesis that there is a statistically significant difference between the variances of the control group c M = 3.06, s =
.968 and the experimental group e M = 3.97, s = 1.175. Assuming the equal
variance, therefore, it was gained that t = -3.552, df = 68 and sig. 2 tailed = .001. Since the significance level is less than .05, it means that the difference between
the means could not have occurred by chance. In conclusion, the finding is that the use of crossword puzzles to learn English as Second Language is an effective
strategy of vocabulary instruction. The third study was conducted by Orawiwatnakul 2013. The study is
intended to examine the effects of crossword puzzles on vocabulary acquisition of first-year undergraduate students at Bangkok University including some faculties:
Humanities, Business Administration, Accounting, Communication Arts, Fine and Applied Arts, Sciences, and Engineering who were required to take at least three
fundamental English courses. The study implemented experimental and survey research. The findings revealed that the students‘ overall post-test score was
higher than their pre-test score at significance level of .0.5. When classifying the students into three groups based on their vocabulary proficiency, it was found that
students in all groups could improve their vocabulary knowledge of a significance level of .0.5. The results form Repeated Measures Analysis of Variance test
showed that significant differences existed in the scores of the three tests which students gained from the tests and the final exam. Meanwhile, the result of the
questionnaire also illustrated their very favorable attitudes toward learning vocabulary through crosswords as a whole. To conclude, learning vocabulary
through crossword puzzles is effective to improve students‘ vocabulary, and it can
increase students‘ motivation to learn English. The fourth study was conducted by B.B Dwijatmoko. He aimed to
examine the contribution of bilingual crossword in web-based vocabulary class.
The results of the study show that bilingual crosswords in teaching-learning vocabulary contributes to the vocabulary mastery of the students Fobs Ftab, p =
0.045. It shows that although the contribution of the puzzle is low inasmuch as only 8.5 cases in the student‘s vocabulary development can be contributed to the
use of the puzzles, yet the puzzles are useful since it strengthens the link between the words and their meanings. Furthermore, learning vocabulary through the
puzzles gives the learners pleasure and influenced to their learning achievement. His study was closely related to this study in that he was the designer of the
ELTGallery website and also the online crossword puzzles applied in this study.
In other words, both studies were under one umbrella. Thus, being in line with his study, this research also was concerned with the online crossword puzzles. It was
intended to provide other aspects dealing with the issue. Being in line with his study, this study intended to examine how the students employed their vocabulary
learning strategies through the puzzles and it also illustrated the most significant factors or features which encourage the students to learn vocabulary using the
puzzles. In conclusion, the reviews from those studies give useful information that
crossword puzzles may effectively support vocabulary learning. They have proven that crossword puzzle gave positive effects to learners‘ improvement in
vocabulary mastery, and it could create positive effects to learn ers‘ feeling and
responses. Accordingly, this study is intended to provide improvement from the previous studies which conducted their studies by using paper-based crossword
puzzles. Hence, this study made improvement from the previous studies by combining the web-
based learning and crossword puzzles to enhance learners‘
vocabulary learning in order to obtain more optimal effects to support them achieving the goals.
C. THOERETICAL FRAMEWORK
Theoretical framework provides relevant theories used to answer the research questions of this study which investigate how the learners employ
vocabulary learning strategies through the puzzles and the most significant factors which encouraged them to learn vocabulary using the puzzles. In order to answer
the research questions, this study combines the holistic concepts of CALL, web- based learning, vocabulary, language learning strategies, and the online crossword
puzzles implemented in the course. First, this study adapted the concepts of language learning strategies
proposed by Oxford 1990 to categorize the vocabulary learning strategies applied by the students through the puzzles. Oxford described language learning
strategies to learn a new language, and they are possibly applied for four skills namely listening, speaking, reading, and writing. Thus, this theory is considered
providing detailed vocabulary learning strategies. Accordingly, this theory is used in this study inasmuch as it provides more complete and systematic vocabulary
learning strategies. However, it is needed to classify and adjust the theory in order to be used as the construct of this study which focuses on vocabulary learning
strategies.
