Relevant Studies Conceptual Framework

41 looking not too smart in front of their friends. Teen ages are the era of having really high fighting spirit. The competitive behavioral can be used to drive them to use the nature in a good way. During the games, the students will learn to correct grammatical mistakes within the given sentences and write down the correct forms in a piece of paper. By doing this again and again, they will unconsciously learn to write sentences with correct grammatical forms and will sharpen their understanding of grammar.

B. Relevant Studies

The effectiveness of using board game to improve grammar has been studied by Tengku Nazatul Shima Tengku Parisa and Rahmah Lob Yussof from Universiti Teknologi MARA, Kuantan 25200, Malaysia. The study was carried out among Pre TESL students of UiTM Pahang, Kuantan Campus in 2012 and they found that board game is a useful teaching tool to be used in grammar and to supplement textbooks. Lilly Metom, Amelia Alfred Tom, and Saira Joe from Universiti Teknologi Mara, Sarawak Campus, Malaysia, in 2013 also prooved board games as a fun way to improve students’ engagement and grammar mastery. They found that students’ motivation in learning improved after the implementation of the board games. The games were proofed to be effective in providing learners an entertaining and relaxing atmosphere which leads to the reducing anxiety and stress in the learning of grammar. The other study of using board games for learning was conducted by Mansur in 2007 as the fulfillment of the requirement for the Lektor Degree of Kopertis Region VII The Faculty of Teacher Training and Education Universitas PGRI Ronggolawe 42 UNIROW Tuban. From his study, it is proven that the use of board games for learning can effectively improve the learners’ mastery of grammar.

C. Conceptual Framework

The fact that writing has many steps to do before the real activity of putting our ideas into a written form shows that writing is indeed a complicated activity. That it has so many steps to be done means that it has also many steps for someone to learn to write. It must have more scaffolding to give to teach writing to the students. Therefore, writing might be a little bit tiring and boring for some people to learn since there are many ways we have to do to be able to write well. Letting the students learn traditionally by giving inputs like grammatical features and structures of the texts might bore them. Writing itself has been complicated, but to learn to do it is even worse. Teachers must find an exciting way to do it to make learners enjoy the learning of writing so that they would gain more knowledge through it. Like have been mentioned in the limitation of the problems, students are having problems of activating their grammatical awareness in writing, and also activating their learning motivation during the lesson. The lack of the teaching and learning media might be the source of the problems. Therefore, by using games like board games might boost their mood so that they will be more eager to learn more, especially complicated skill like writing. 43 The conceptual framework of the research can be summarized as follows: Figure 1 The Conceptual Framework of the Research The four problems occurring were identified during the observation to the teaching and learning process. The problems altogether made strings to obstruct the progress of students’ mastery of writing. Therefore, it is important to solve the problems altogether. Board games is applied to provide better atmosphere for learning that will lead to the improvement of students’ participation and eagerness to learn. When the atmosphere lets them to participate and enjoy the learning of writing, they will be able to produce a good quality of writing. Lack of Media Writing Complexity Students’ Low Monotonous Class Better Atmosphere The Increase of Students’ Participation to the Learning Students’ Willingness to Learn Student’s Difficulty in Writing Board Games Good Quality of Writing 44

CHAPTER III RESEARCH METHODS

A. Type of the Research

Based on the purpose of the study that is improving students’ writing skill, this research is classified as action research. According to Kemmis and McTaggart 1990 action research is “a form of collective self-reflective inquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of these practices and the situations in which these practices are carried out ”. From the definition above, it can be concluded that action research is a study to improve social or education practices. Parsons and Brown 2002, stated that action research is a form of investigation designed for use by teachers to attempt to solve problems and improve professional practices in their own classrooms. It involves systematic observations and data collection which can be then used by the practitioner-researcher in reflection, decision-making and the development of more effective classroom strategies. Shortly, Action Research is a kind of research that is conducted to critic and to improve something. Action Research is not only about improvement of the condition of education or social environment. It has to be practical and applicable. It has to be able to be applied in real world problems. The research is conducted by practitioners that also belong to the participants. The practitioners are partners who are active during the research, not just partners that take part in the research, do the processes the research