2.6.4 The Advantages and Disadvantages of Crossword Puzzles in Vocabulary Teaching
Vocabulary is one of the most important things in learning English. In learning vocabulary, we are not only learning about the form of the words but also
learning about the word meanings. Thus, we can understand the words well and can use the words appropriately to produce sentences or communicate with others.
Besides, the use of Crossword Puzzles in teaching vocabulary has several advantages and disadvantages. Each of them is explained in the following parts briefly.
According to Karim and Hasbullah 1986:2.34-2.36, the advantages of Crossword Puzzles are as follows:
1. The Crossword Puzzles can stimulate the students’ interest in learning vocabulary. By using game, the students will feel more enjoyable in learning
the vocabulary. 2. The Crossword Puzzles make the students relax and not feeling stress in the
teaching learning process. The Crossword Puzzles will make the students more active and enthusiastic in learning vocabulary because the situation of
the teaching learning process is relaxed and interesting. 3. The Crossword Puzzles make the students learn new words and memorize
those words easily. The students will be easier in memorizing the words because they will get some experiences while doing the games. They learn
new vocabularies while they are playing the game. 4. The Crossword Puzzles can increase the students’ vocabulary. The students
will find some new vocabularies from the answers or clues of the Crossword Puzzles. Automatically, the students’ vocabularies will increase.
5. The Crossword Puzzles help the students to think and use their knowledge to fill the Crossword Puzzles. By doing the Crossword Puzzles the students are
trained to think and find the correlations between their knowledge and the clues to fill the Crossword Puzzles.
Based on the explanation above, the Crossword Puzzles are suitable for teaching vocabulary. It helps the students easier in learning vocabulary. Besides, it
also has some disadvantages in the teaching learning process, according to Karim and Hasbullah 1986:2.35-2.36, the disadvantages of using Crossword Puzzles are as
follows: 1. Sometimes Crossword Puzzles makes the students confused because they are
not familiar with the words. 2. Crossword Puzzles will not be effective if the teacher does not give the clear
instruction or clues. 3. Sometimes, the teachers also find some difficulties in making the Crossword
Puzzles by themselves. From the disadvantages of using the Crossword Puzzles above, the teacher
can solve it by giving explanations about the words used in the Crossword Puzzles and giving clear instruction to the students before giving the Crossword Puzzles. If
the teacher is difficult to make the Crossword Puzzles, they can take it from the textbooks or internet.
2.6.5 The Effect of Using Crossword Puzzles on Vocabulary Achievement
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