The Results of the Observation
61 Concerning the difficulties they might have in mastering near-synonyms,
all of the students admitted that they faced problems in answering the questions in the pretest 1 and pretest 2. They said that they had not studied near-synonyms
before so that they faced a lot of difficulties in differentiating one word and the others. Consequently, they might not be able to show a satisfying performance in
answering the tests. From the experimental class, all of the interviewed students admitted that
they liked the picture comparison interactive medium. They considered the medium appealing and attractive so that they were interested to study near-
synonyms. It was because the design was colorful and contained a lot of pictures. Moreover, the medium was interactive enough because it required the students to
operate the medium by themselves. Through this way, the students could position themselves as active subjects in learning the materials by figuring out the answers
of the provided questions from the medium. Hence, it could trigger the students to feel challenged in mastering the materials. The result was they could foster their
understanding about near-synonyms. They used to learn vocabularies by being passive subjects who directly looked for any difficult vocabularies on any
dictionary without trying to stimulate their critical thinking first. Besides, they argued that reading a dictionary could easily make them feel bored and burdened.
By bringing an appealing design to the medium, the researcher su
ccessfully raised the students’ enjoyment during the learning process. Moreover, the medium could help the researcher to maintain the students’ interest
until the learning process was over. The interviewed students stated that the PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
62 medium was creative and fascinating so that they could enjoy the learning process
without having the tendency of getting bored or sleepy. Thus, the students did not feel that learning near-synonyms was burdensome.
Concerning the other advantages of the medium, the students felt that the medium has played a significant role in helping them to understand near-
synonyms faster. Most students argued that learning by using the medium could make them understand the vocabularies better than reading from a dictionary or
being explained orally. By the presence of lots of illustrations on the medium, the students were helped to imagine and bring the words in the real word contexts.
Evenmore, some of the students stated that the existence of the illustration could ease them in recalling the explanation of the materials. Further, through
presenting the brief and clear explanation of each synonym side by side, the students can be put at ease to analyze any subtle differences between one word
and the other similar words. From the result of the interview, the researcher could conclude that the
picture comparison interactive medium could facilitate the students’ learning
process in much better ways. We could see that through digging out the students’ perception towards the medium, they considered the medium interesting,
interactive, and easy to be understood. It is also supported by the students’ statements that they wanted to use such kind of learning aid in the next lesson. In
addition, some of the students suggested that the researcher should add any auditory element such as audio pronunciations of the near-synonyms on the
medium. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
63 For the students in the control group, they considered the PowerPoint
slides used in their class good and easy to be understood. However, they suggested that the teacher modify the learning aid with more pictures and any
colorful design. They argued that any additional pictures or colors on the medium might boost their interest in learning the materials. In addition, some of the
students argued that it was better for the teacher to compare the pairs of the near- synonyms side by side in one slide so that it would be easier for the students to
analyze any subtle differences of the near-synonyms. The last interview question was about the learning media the students want
and need in learning. All of the students both in the experimental and control group stated that they wanted to learn materials by using any movies, short
videos, pictures, or games. We can conclude that they preferred to learn by using any visual and kinesthetic element as the means.